Judge grants request for another delay in pending federal consent decree with Minneapolis police

The Minneapolis Police Department’s pending federal consent decree will stay on pause for another month, after a judge Thursday approved the U.S. Department of Justice motion requesting the extension.

While the city of Minneapolis and Justice Department had reached an agreement soon before President Donald Trump took office that would hold MPD to federal court-enforceable reforms, it has yet to be approved by a federal judge. 

Not long after the change in administration, the new Justice Department filed a motion to put the case on hold. That was set to end Thursday, but the department filed another motion Wednesday afternoon to stay the proceedings.

If approved, that could keep the pause going for at least another month.

In a memo justifying the request, attorneys with the Justice Department argued that “the public interest weighs in favor of the United States’ receiving an extension of the stay so that leadership within the Department of Justice can more fully understand the current context surrounding this matter.” The Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis supports that request, according to court filings.

But attorneys for the City of Minneapolis pushed back, arguing that the United States’ motion does not prove a legitimate need for that pause — or the initial pause to begin with. In a memo opposing the motion, attorneys argued that the Justice Department had not proved moving forward would hurt the United States. And they said the additional delay would harm the city.

“Over the course of four years, the United States has made the existence of its investigation into the City and MPD known widely to the public and via a published Report, cultivated the public’s expectation of a Consent Decree, commenced this action, and joined with the City to resolve its asserted claims,” the memo reads. “The City is entitled to prompt and final resolution of the claims against it, and the proposed Consent Decree constitutes the full and final resolution to a public process that has taken years already to accomplish.”

The settlement agreement had been anticipated after a Justice Department investigation criticized MPD for years of racially discriminating against Black and Native people and using “unjustified deadly force” in policing. It concluded that MPD’s culture and practices created the “systemic problems” that made possible the police murder of George Floyd in 2020. 

While Floyd’s murder and the global protests that followed occurred during the first Trump Administration, his Justice Department did not open an investigation into MPD and limited the use of consent decrees as a means for police reform and accountability. 

Trump has long opposed consent decrees, calling them a “war on police.” A few days into his second term, new DOJ leadership froze all civil rights litigation and issued a memo that said the administration “may wish to reconsider” court-enforceable agreements to reform police agencies.

That also includes an agreement reached between the Louisville Metro Police Department and the Justice Department last December. That followed an investigation brought on by the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor in 2020. In January, the Justice Department also requested to put a 30-day pause on that agreement. 

In Minneapolis, city leadership has supported the consent decree and said they will aim to transform the police department, regardless of whether or not the federal consent decree is approved.

The department is currently bound by a state court-enforced settlement agreement, which followed an earlier investigation from the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. The end of March will mark one year of an independent evaluator monitoring MPD’s compliance with that agreement.

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