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Updates related to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights Settlement Agreement |
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The report released on June 15, 2026 by Effective Law Enforcement for All (ELEFA), the Independent Monitor for the Settlement Agreement between the City of Minneapolis and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR), covers the reporting period of Oct. 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026. This is the fourth report by ELEFA since it began monitoring the progress of the City’s compliance with the Settlement Agreement on March 18, 2024.
The reporting period examined in this fourth progress report coincided with Operation Metro Surge, which had a significant impact on the City of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) in particular. For more than two months, this unprecedented and unwelcome federal enforcement operation created enormous pressure on MPD resources, while disrupting daily life across the city and causing lasting harm to residents, businesses, and communities. In its report, ELEFA acknowledges that the pressure of Operation Metro Surge on the City, MPD, and the broader community led to severe and unanticipated disruption of the Settlement Agreement implementation process.
The City's statement about the report
"The Minneapolis Police Department has made meaningful progress in strengthening policies, improving training, enhancing accountability, and building trust with the communities we serve. Those accomplishments reflect the hard work and dedication of our officers, professional staff, community partners, and oversight teams. We acknowledge the challenges and gaps outlined in the ELEFA report, and we know this work is far from finished. There is still much to address within Internal Affairs. We must place a higher priority on officer wellness. And we must work better to engage everyone in the department and the public in this process as we move forward toward being a model for community policing.
"Meaningful change requires a sustained commitment over time from everyone involved. I am determined to advance this work, ensuring we continue on a path toward full compliance with the Settlement Agreement.
"We will hold ourselves accountable to the standards our community expects and deserves. This work is about more than compliance. It is about building a stronger organization, strengthening public trust, and ensuring we deliver the highest level of service to the people of Minneapolis. We have made important progress, but we cannot lose sight of the work ahead.”
-Interim Chief Bill Peterson, Minneapolis Police Department
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Key passages from ELEFA's report
We have highlighted some key passages from the progress report.
- “Overall, these first two years implementing the Agreement under our watch have presented the City and MPD with challenges and demands it had not previously experienced. Their personnel have demonstrated genuine and sustained commitment to implementing the Agreement despite these challenges. Lessons have been learned that they continue to apply to expedite and improve implementation.”
- “Transformational change occurs incrementally, and the City and its police department are making continued, if uneven, progress toward that goal. We appreciate and commend the many City and MPD personnel, sworn and non-sworn, who are working diligently to advance implementation”
Impact of Operation Metro Surge during this Review Period
- “As we have said in prior reports, institutional transformation is a complex, uncertain, and lengthy process. This is true, even under the best circumstances, but work in this Review Period did not occur in that environment. Far from it. The federal Metro Surge enforcement initiative painfully disrupted life in Minneapolis for more than two months, and the City and MPD are still recovering.”
- “We heard first-hand accounts of the harm that Metro Surge inflicted and saw how Minneapolitans supported each other during this unprecedented, and unwelcome, federal action. City and MPD personnel normally tasked with implementing the Agreement were appropriately drawn away, working long hours, over many days, to address the City’s needs during this time. It was a severe, unanticipated disruption of the implementation process.”
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The City's key achievements are identified
ELEFA’s report identifies positive steps the City has taken to fulfill its commitment to meeting the terms of the Settlement Agreement. However, these actions are not limited to the Settlement Agreement.
As directed by the Mayor, the City is also concurrently working to meet the terms of the proposed federal consent decree, reflecting the dedication of Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) officers and City staff to create sustainable reforms.
Use of Force In-Service Training Completion
MPD completed updated Use of Force training across the department, which included training on the updated policy, required skills training and scenario-based exercises. The updated Use of Force policies took effect January 1, 2026, and officers are now trained to follow them. This is one of the four core topic areas of the Agreement, and implementing new use of force policy is a consequential accomplishment.
Policy approvals included:
- Misconduct Prevention, Reporting and Investigation
- Searches for Voluntary Transports
- Adult Stops, Searches, and Seizures and Citations
- Early Intervention System (EIS) policy
- Quarterly Review Panel policy
- Use of Force policies (post-training technical updates to policies)
- Peer Support
Health and Wellness Training Delivered
MPD launched the Health and Wellness and Introduction to EIS annual in-service training, which incorporates holistic wellness concepts, best-practice inclusive language, and an introduction to the EIS.
2026 CIT Refresher Training Approved
The updated CIT Refresher Training Course represents a substantial improvement over prior iterations, including the incorporation of a law enforcement co-facilitator. The IE observed this training and found it to be well done.
Peer Support Team Deployment
MPD continued building out its Peer Support Team after the Peer Support Policy was approved. The team now has 27 vetted members, covers all police precincts, and is used to support members after traumatic incidents. The team also has a dedicated sergeant, meets monthly for training and support, and tracks how often Peer Support is used without collecting personal identifying information.
Director of Wellness Position Funded
The City posted the position and is presently interviewing candidates.
Quarterly Review Panel (QRP) Meetings Continued
MPD conducted Quarterly Review Panel meetings covering traffic stops and their use of force topics. We observed continued but uneven improvement in the quality and self-critical nature of the discussions.
Community Commission on Police Oversight (CCPO)
The CCPO has recruited new members, including alternates who can serve on review panels for misconduct cases and replace standing members, when necessary, preventing delay or disruption of the important work accomplished by this body. It also invited the Chief to appear before it to answer member questions, which he did.
Professional Advisory Committee for Training
The Professional Advisory Committee (PAC) for Training continued to meet. PAC members, which include local university professors, state training experts, and mental health professionals from the community, provide feedback on training curricula and teach at the pre-service Academy. It’s anticipated that the PAC will prove to be an increasingly valuable asset as MPD develops more complex and integrated training programs.
Progress on Facilities, Equipment and Technology Plan
ELEFA indicated that the proposed Community Safety Training and Wellness Center should remain a key priority and the City should continue to pursue its development. The facility would provide dedicated space for emergency service training and wellness, both of which are critical to compliance with the Settlement Agreement.
In addition, the City continued to make progress on its approved Facilities, Equipment and Technology Plan, completing 123 of the 319 projects identified in the original assessment. Larger and more complex facility needs remain in progress, including water testing across MPD-occupied spaces and the next internal facility assessment, expected later in 2026.
The City also advanced several long-term space needs, including relocating the 1st Precinct, renovating the former 1st Precinct building for training and temporary Health and Wellness Unit space, and approving relocation to a new 3rd Precinct building, the South Minneapolis Community Safety Center.
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Challenges identified by ELEFA
The City is aware of the challenges outlined in ELEFA’s report, and we have already been taking renewed steps to address them. Meaningful police reform is a marathon, not a sprint. We also continue to be challenged by the lack of resources from tight budget years and reduced sworn staffing that would aid meaningful change. Progress toward meeting the goals has been slowed by personnel and resource deficits, as well as communication gaps we have identified and are addressing.
The challenges listed in the report and steps taken to address them include:
Field Training Officer Program
Although the Field Training Officer (FTO) Program Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) remained incomplete at the close of this review period, completing the SOP will be a priority for MPD to complete, given its critical role in shaping officer performance, supervision and accountability.
ELEFA provided continued technical assistance, workshopping sessions and extensive feedback on the SOP. To move this work forward, ELEFA stated MPD needs to assign a project lead with clear decision-making authority and ensure the SOP includes the detail necessary to meet Settlement Agreement requirements, guide day-to-day implementation, and support consistency across the program over time.
Beyond these specific achievements, the City continues to improve its implementation processes and strengthen its collaboration with ELEFA and with MDHR. These efforts have accelerated progress, which is expected will continue as those process improvements are built upon going forward.
Policy and Training Development
ELEFA noted the development of policy and training is an inherently slow and cumbersome process. Drafting clear and concise, yet comprehensive policies is complex, and entails review and approval by several distinct groups, including internal subject matter experts, officers, the public, MDHR and ELEFA. MPD has worked with ELEFA and MDHR to identify and eliminate inefficiencies. ELEFA identified that they are optimistic that going forward the process will move faster.
Internal Affairs (IA) Backlog Reduction
Despite working on this for at least two years, MPD has made no meaningful progress in reducing its case backlog. Bottlenecks in key stages of the misconduct investigation process, combined with continued turnover, lack of experienced investigators, and internal conflict, are among the factors that have stalled progress. The City is currently advancing evaluation of these issues and developing strategies to address them, including pursuing additional resources and improved performance management.
Insufficient staffing for Wellness Unit
The Health and Wellness Unit remains understaffed despite funding for the Director of Wellness position. MPD has not yet fully allocated or hired all of the positions recommended in the Employee Support Plan, as one position remains to be filled. MPD also lost its Early Intervention System (EIS) Manager and EIS Coordinators during this review period, delaying the EIS rollout. ELEFA identified that moving EIS under the Wellness Unit and ultimately under the Chief’s direct chain of command is a positive structural step, but that transition depends on hiring and onboarding.
Data System deployment delays
The new case management system for Internal Affairs (IA)/Office of Police Conduct Review (OPCR), originally projected for June 2025, was further delayed. EIS Phase 1 development continued, though the deployment timeline has been extended too, given recent vacancies that have occurred in key positions needed to support the EIS.
ELEFA recommendations moving forward
To help the City and MPD address the shortcomings identified by ELEFA, the City continues to work to strengthen its processes and follow recommendations made by ELEFA, including:
- Reassessing personnel capacity, roles, and responsibilities.
- Establishing clear supervisory authority, responsibility, and reporting.
- Supplementing existing communication and coordination channels.
- Ensuring that all personnel responsible for Agreement implementation understand how their role and responsibilities relate to Agreement implementation.
- Setting and communicating aggressive but realistic deadlines.
- Establishing standing meeting times to ensure availability of necessary personnel.
- Keeping department personnel informed.
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People who are deaf or hard of hearing can use a relay service to call 311 at 612-673-3000. TTY users call 612-263-6850.
Para asistencia, llame al 311. Rau kev pab 311. Hadii aad Caawimaad u baahantahay 311.
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