Despite the overwhelming disproportionality of force used by MPD officers against Black community members, some City and MPD leaders, as well as some MPD officers, claim that disproportionality in policing in Minneapolis is due to factors other than race. Therefore, to further determine if race is the likely reason that MPD officers use higher rates of force against Black individuals, and to control or account for common justifications for this disproportionality, a comparison of use of force incidents against Black and white individuals in similar circumstances was completed. This statistical analysis was also coupled with review of MPD’s use of force files and body worn camera footage. To complete this racial disparity analysis, MPD’s use of force incidents from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2020, involving Black and white individuals were
compared. To ensure the analysis compared individuals in similar situations, use of force incidents were compared only if MPD officers recorded the same justification for the force (i.e., the individual’s recorded behavior, such as whether the individual tensed) and where the same primary offense was recorded (i.e., the alleged crime or event that led to the overall police interaction, or the alleged crime that ultimately occurred. This analysis and review of use of force files and body worn camera footage demonstrate that race is the likely reason that
MPD officers use higher rates of more severe force against Black individuals compared to white individuals in similar circumstances. MPD officers use higher rates of neck restraints or chokeholds against Black individuals than white individuals in similar circumstance. Prior to June 2020, MPD policy permitted the use of neck restraints, 22 even to render someone unconscious. In June 2020, after an MPD officer murdered George Floyd, the temporary court order requested by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights required MPD to ban the use of neck restraints, without exception.
MPD’s data shows that during the time neck restraints were permitted under MPD policy, MPD officers were almost twice as likely to use neck restraints against Black individuals than white individuals who MPD officers recorded as behaving in the same way when interacting with police and whose police interaction stemmed from the same alleged offense or event.