Minneapolis Police Federation attorney Jim Michels joined Liz Collin on her podcast to discuss the latest on the federal consent decree in Minnesota’s largest city. Minneapolis is currently under a state settlement agreement, put in place after the death of George Floyd in 2020, but a federal decree has been delayed.
Michels represents the Minneapolis police officers’ federation against the federal consent decree, which is a legally-binding, court-enforced agreement between the Department of Justice and a police department designed to “reform unlawful or unconstitutional policing practices,” according to the United States Department of Justice (DOJ).
Michaels explained why the situation in Minneapolis seems strange: “Unlike most litigation where a complaint gets filed, the other party submits an answer, usually denying the allegations. Then you go into years of discovery and then maybe come up with a settlement agreement. This is a canned deal right from the get-go, when you file the settlement agreement on the same day and usually within minutes of filing the complaint in the action. So that’s kind of where we stand right now.”
Michels said that happened back in January—two weeks to the day before President Donald Trump was inaugurated—which Michels believes wasn’t by accident.
“The thought process, and it’s been publicly stated by a number of the Minneapolis elected officials that they thought that if they could somehow get the consent decree into court before Trump took office, that that would give some leg up to try and get the court to approve it,” Michels said.
Earlier this month, U.S. Judge Paul Magnuson granted a request from the DOJ to delay the consent decree.
Michels further explained how “the Trump administration has made it clear they don’t think too highly of this consent decree process.”
“And so the Department of Justice made an initial motion to Judge Magnuson to stay, basically asking the court to continue to hold on to the case to see how the Justice Department wanted to proceed … outside the formal pleadings in court, there’s been a lot of discussion and a lot of it actually by members of the Trump administration that seemed to indicate that they do not plan to move forward with a consent decree in Minneapolis or in many other jurisdictions around the country.”
However, it seems Minneapolis leaders are eager to implement the federal consent decree, objecting to the stay put in place.
“The only time that I can even think of why a defendant would want a case to move forward is if they thought that the court was going to dismiss the case outright. In other words, say, ‘Defendant, you didn’t do anything wrong, case is done, let’s all go home.’ But that’s clearly not what the City of Minneapolis is intending to do here. In fact, in council meetings and in many other forums, they’ve made it clear that they intend to use the consent decree to reform the police department. So this is an unusual case where the defendant in litigation wants to be sued, apparently,” Michels said.
The Minneapolis Police Department has been drastically reduced from 900 officers at the start of May 2020. Collin asked about how many officers there are now, with Michels revealing a stark reality, and one that does not bode well for public safety in the city.
“The easy and sad answer is that right now the department is hovering, give or take, about 500 officers. So they’re down to roughly 60% of their authorized strength. Just so the public is clear on that, that includes, you know, the investigators, so sergeants that are assigned to investigations, and administrative, the chief’s office, everything else. The actual number of police officers available on the street to answer calls on a daily basis, a little bit under 400. It’s as low as it’s ever been in any time that I can think of. And I’ve been representing the police federation for 35 years,” Michels said.
He said the fact that the city has “too few men and women” who want to be police officers is one of its biggest problems right now.
“So anything that we do, we should put through the lens of, will this help us attract good people to this noble profession or will this continue to drive people away? And if, for anybody who wants to read this consent decree, it’s on the City of Minneapolis website, go find it, take a look at it and ask that question for yourself. Would you want to live or have your son or daughter go to work every day with that kind of microscope on everything that they do?” Michels commented.
Despite all of that, Michels said there are some positive aspects: “I will give the Department of Justice credit in that during their investigation, part of this procedure, they were good about reaching out to officers and taking their input. And in fact, there were many things in the consent decree that the officers and the federation could support, such as more training for officers, more mental health resources available for the officers. It actually called into question the department’s staffing model to try and get more staff.”
“So I do think that in the investigative process, a lot of officers believe that they were heard and had an opportunity to talk freely and openly. It’s in the settlement conversation and about what this so-called reform will look like where officers feel that they have not been heard or have not even had the opportunity to be heard. In great part that’s why the federation moved to intervene in the legal action,” he said.
Last summer Alpha News featured a police training expert who has spent years studying these consent decrees across the country. Dr. Travis Yates pointed out that of the 20 most violent cities in America, over half are run currently by the DOJ.
Much like Dr. Yates, Michels explained what seems to be an ulterior motive of the consent decree: the city has “made it clear that they intend to use that to try to weaponize it, you know, either against the federation or against officers or in the court of public opinion.”
But perhaps most importantly, Michels also talked about how the consent decree, available on the City of Minneapolis website, “undermines the public’s trust in all police and all law enforcement officers everywhere. And that does not make us safer. It makes us less safe.”
Liz Collin
Liz Collin is a multi-Emmy-Award-winning investigative reporter, news anchor, and producer who cares about Minnesota. She is the producer of The Fall of Minneapolis and Minnesota v We the People documentary films, and author of the Amazon best-selling book, They’re Lying: The Media, the Left, and The Death of George Floyd. Her work has prompted important state laws. Yet perhaps most of all, Liz has been giving a voice to the truth—and helping others tell their stories—for more than 20 years.
