Policing The Progressive City

Since the eruption of the Black Lives Matter Movement in 2014, police brutality, police violence, and police reform have emerged as central public policy concerns. Minneapolis has been at the center of these conversations. While our city was on the national forefront of progressive policing reforms (including body cameras, procedural justice and implicit bias trainings, diversion programs, and more), the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) also faces steep criticism from activists and residents alike, especially in the wake of recent high-profile police killings of civilians, including Jamar Clark and Justine Damond (Ruszczyk). In May 2020, George Floyd was murdered by MPD officers, bringing Minneapolis to the center of a national and international protest movement to #DefundPolice.

In this project, I use Minneapolis as a case study in the process of police reform (or transformation). How do activists, residents, and city leaders diagnose the problem in policing -- and its potential solutions? As citizens and cities grapple with the trauma of racialized police violence, understanding the role all of us play in shaping policing and public safety has never been more important.

Data Collection

Over several years, my research team (which included, at various points, Santino Reynolds, AshLee Smith, De Andre' Beadle, Amber Joy Powell, Christopher Robertson, Dwjuan Frazier, Anneliese Ward, and Daniel Cueto-Villalobos) conducted several different data collection efforts to understand policing, police violence, and police reform, transformation, and abolition work in Minneapolis. The data include:

• 1. 1. Northside Residents. North Minneapolis disproportionately experiences both high rates of crime and police contact as compared to the rest of the city. We completed over 120 interviews with residents in North Minneapolis in 2017-2019. Lasting from 30-90 minutes, these interviews start with a short survey and continue with an open-ended qualitative interview about participants’ attitudes toward police, experiences with police, knowledge of MPD reforms, attitudes towards police reform, and desires for future change.* 

     2. Activists & Advocacy Groups. I conducted 25+ open-ended qualitative interviews with individuals leading police reform efforts. These individuals include politicians, police oversight, journalists, local organizers (e.g. with Black Lives Matter Twin Cities, Communities United Against Police Brutality, Black Visions Collective, and NAACP Minneapolis), and advocacy lawyers. Interviews lasted from 1-2.5 hours and provide narrative data on the person’s framing of the problems or challenges in policing and their work toward solutions. We also trace activists' organizing efforts from 2017-2023.

     3. Ethnographic Observations of Policing Events. The team attended 30+ public events related to policing, including meetings of the Governor's Council on Law Enforcement and Community Relationships, city council meetings, community forums, and vigils for the victims of police violence. In addition, we map public protests, activists' demands for change, and their reception in city hall. 

     4. Minneapolis Police Department. Using MPD’s press releases, media accounts, and historical archives, we document the long a timeline of MPD crises and reforms, from the start of the department through to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and Department of Justice investigations in 2022-2023.

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*Interview guide available here.

Funding

Our thanks to the project funders, which included: University of Minnesota’s Grant-in-Aid of Research, Artistry, and Scholarship program; Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (Faculty Interactive Research Program); Robert J. Jones Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center; University of Minnesota Beverly and Richard Fink Summer Fellowship Program; Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program, University of Minnesota; and Sociology Department, University of Minnesota.

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Photo credit for the banner image: Adam Bettcher/Reuters.