Libor Jany
Star Tribune
MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo revealed the first of a series of department reforms Wednesday, starting with pulling out of negotiations with the union representing rank-and-file officers and redeveloping an intervention system to track and address problem behavior.
“What our city needs now more than ever is a pathway and a plan that provides hope, reasurrance and actionable movements toward reform,” Arradondo said.
Arradondo said he will withdraw from negotiations with the Minneapolis Police Federation, and bringing advisers to see how the contract can be restructured for greater transparency and changes.
“For my chief peers here in the state and across the country, there is nothing more debilitating from a chief’s perspective than when you have grounds to terminate an officer for misconduct and you have to deal with a third party that allows the officer not only to be rehired, but patrolling in our communities.”
Lt. Bob Kroll, president of the union which represents more than 800 Minneapolis and park police, has long been a lightning rod for criticism, and has avoided making public comment since George Floyd’s May 25 death under the knee of officer Derek Chauvin, resulting in widespread protests, looting and riots. Chauvin has since been charged with manslaughter and murder, and three other officers charged with aiding and abetting. In a letter to union members, he blasted the city’s handling of the ensuing riots, in which he told officers that they were being made “scapegoats” for the continued violence.
Arradondo on Wednesday declined to say whether Kroll’s removal from union representation would affect his efforts toward reform.
Arradondo also said the department will use “real time data to intervene with officers involved in problem behavior.” An attempt to implement a similar so-called Early Intervention System that was first introduced in 2014, but appeared to never take off.
“I want to say this again: over the past weeks I’ve been approached and received e-mails and phone calls from sworn officers and civilian employees, and they have unequivocally said ‘Chief that is not us; that is not who we are’ and they are going back out into communities and try to rebuild that trust,” he said. “It’s going to be a heavy lift but I am determined we are going to be on the right side of history.”
A key component of that, he said, will be attempting to earn the trust of of minority communities.
“Race is inextricably a part of the American policing system,” he said. “We will never evolve in this profession if we don’t atddress it head on. Communities of color have paid the price for this, especially with their lives.”
In a statement, Mayor Jacob Frey lauded Arradondo’s efforts.
“We don’t just need a new contract with the police,” Frey said. “We need a new compact between the people of Minneapolis and the people trusted to protect and serve — and we need to go farther than we ever have in making sweeping structural reform.”