The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) is the primary law enforcement agency in Minneapolis,Minnesota,United States. It is also the largest police department in Minnesota. Formed in 1867,it is the second-oldest police department in Minnesota,after the Saint Paul Police Department that formed in 1854. A short-lived Board of Police Commissioners existed from 1887 to 1890.
On November 15,2015,two police officers fatally shot Jamar Clark,a 24-year-old African-American man,in Minneapolis. The two shooters were Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze. They were a part of the Minneapolis Police Department which subsequently placed the men on paid administrative leave. The night after Ringgenberg and Schwarze shot him,Clark died at the Hennepin County Medical Center after being taken off life support. His death resulted from one of the gunshot wounds the shooters inflicted on November 15.
On May 25,2020,George Floyd,a 46-year-old black American man,was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin,a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk alleged that he made a purchase using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face-down in a street. Two other police officers,J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane,assisted Chauvin in restraining Floyd. Lane had also pointed a gun at Floyd's head before Floyd was handcuffed. A fourth police officer,Tou Thao,prevented bystanders from intervening.
Derek Michael Chauvin is a former police officer who murdered George Floyd,a 46-year-old African-American man,in Minneapolis,Minnesota. On May 25,2020,Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down on the street,calling out "I can't breathe",during an arrest made with three other officers. Chauvin was dismissed by the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) on May 26 and arrested on May 29. The murder set off a series of protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul and across the rest of the United States,later spreading around the world.
The George Floyd protests were a series of police brutality demonstrations and riots that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26,2020. The protests and civil unrest began as part of international reactions to the murder of George Floyd,a 46-year-old African American man,during an arrest. Derek Chauvin,a Minneapolis Police Department officer,knelt on Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds as three other officers looked on and prevented passers-by from intervening. Chauvin and the other three officers involved were later arrested. In April 2021,Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder,third-degree murder,and second-degree manslaughter. In June 2021,Chauvin was sentenced to 22+1⁄2 years in prison.
George Perry Floyd Jr. was a black American man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis,Minnesota,during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd may have used a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill,on May 25,2020. Derek Chauvin,one of four police officers who arrived on the scene,knelt on Floyd's neck and back for 9 minutes and 29 seconds,causing his death from a lack of oxygen. After his murder,protests against police brutality,especially towards black people,quickly spread across the United States and globally. His dying words,"I can't breathe",became a rallying slogan.
The following is a timeline of race relations and policing in Minneapolis–Saint Paul,providing details with a history of policing in the Twin Cities in the U.S. state of Minnesota from the nineteenth century to the present day. The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office,with its headquarters in downtown Minneapolis,is one of the "largest law enforcement agencies in Minnesota" with division and unit facilities throughout Hennepin County. Twin cities,Saint Paul and Minneapolis,have their own police departments,the Minneapolis Police Department,which was established in 1867 and the Saint Paul Police Department. A union for rank and file officers in Minneapolis—the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis —was established in 1917.
Local protests over the murder of George Floyd,sometimes called the Minneapolis riots or Minneapolis uprising,began on May 26,2020,and within a few days had inspired a global protest movement against police brutality and racial inequality. The initial events were a reaction to a video filmed the day before and circulated widely in the media of police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds while Floyd struggled to breathe,begged for help,lost consciousness,and died. Public outrage over the content of the video gave way to widespread civil disorder in Minneapolis,Saint Paul,and other cities in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area over the five-day period of May 26 to 30 after Floyd's murder.
A wave of civil unrest in the United States,initially triggered by the murder of George Floyd during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers on May 25,2020,led to protests and riots against systemic racism in the United States,such as in the form of police violence and other forms of violence. Since then,numerous other incidents of police brutality have drawn continued attention and unrest in various parts of the country.
As a reaction to the murder of George Floyd on May 25,2020,racial justice activists and some residents of the Powderhorn community in Minneapolis staged an occupation protest at the intersection of East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue with a blockade of the streetway lasting over a year. The intersection is where Derek Chauvin,a white police officer with the Minneapolis Police Department,murdered George Floyd,an unarmed 46-year-old Black man. Activists erected barricades to block vehicular traffic and transformed the intersection and surrounding structures with amenities,social services,and public art depicting Floyd and other racial justice themes. The community called the unofficial memorial and protest zone at the intersection "George Floyd Square". The controversial street occupation in 2020 and 2021 was described as an "autonomous zone" and a "no-go" place for police,but local officials disputed the extent of such characterizations.
Dolal Idd was a 23-year-old Somali-American man who was killed in an exchange of gunfire with Minneapolis police officers at approximately 6:15 p.m. CST on December 30,2020,after he shot at them from inside the car he was driving. The fatal encounter happened in the U.S. state of Minnesota during a police sting operation.
State of Minnesota v. Derek Michael Chauvin was an American criminal case in the District Court of Minnesota in 2021. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was tried and convicted for the murder of George Floyd,which occurred during an arrest on May 25,2020,and led to global protests over racial injustice and police brutality. A 12-member jury found Chauvin guilty of unintentional second-degree murder,third-degree murder,and second-degree manslaughter. It was the first conviction of a white police officer in Minnesota for the murder of a black person.
Protests and civil disorder occurred in reaction to the killing of Daunte Wright on April 11,2021. Wright,a 20-year-old Black man,was fatally shot by police officer Kimberly Potter during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center,Minnesota,United States. Protests that first began in Brooklyn Center spread to other locations in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area and then to other cities in the United States. Several nights of civil disorder in Brooklyn Center and adjacent cities resulted in sporadic looting and damage to a few hundred properties,including four businesses that were set on fire.
The aftermath of the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul describes the result of civil disorder between May 26 and June 7,2020,in the Twin Cities metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Protests began as a response to the murder of George Floyd,a 46-year-old African-American man on May 25,after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds as three other officers assisted during an arrest. The incident was captured on a bystander's video and it drew public outrage as video quickly circulated in the news media by the following day.
Law enforcement authorities fatally shot Winston Boogie Smith Jr.,a 32-year-old black American man,in the Uptown area of Minneapolis at 2:08 p.m. CDT on June 3,2021. Smith was being pursued by a U.S. Marshals Service task force that apprehends wanted fugitives. The arrest operation had the participation of undercover agents from several local police agencies in Minnesota. The officers did not use body cameras or dashcams when apprehending Smith. Controversy over the lack of law enforcement footage of the arrest operation led to local police agencies ceasing aid to the Marshals Service's fugitive task force,and to changes to body and dash camera policies by the Marshals and other federal law enforcement agencies.
In 2020 and 2021,several protests were held in the U.S. city of Minneapolis that coincided with judicial proceedings and the criminal trial of Derek Chauvin. As an officer with the Minneapolis Police Department,Chauvin was charged with the murder of George Floyd,an unarmed African American man who died during an arrest incident on May 25,2020. A bystander's video captured Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes while Floyd struggled to breathe,lost consciousness,and died. Protesters opposed Chauvin's pre-trial release from jail on bail in October 2020. In the lead up to and during the criminal trial in early 2021,demonstrators sought conviction and maximum sentencing for Chauvin,and the enactment of police reform measures.
Amir Locke,a 22-year-old Black American man,was fatally shot on February 2,2022,by SWAT officer Mark Hanneman of the Minneapolis Police Department inside an apartment in Minneapolis,Minnesota,where police were executing a no-knock search warrant in a homicide investigation. The officer-involved shooting was reviewed by the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison,the office of Hennepin County attorney Michael Freeman,and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Ellison and Freeman declined to file criminal charges against the officer who shot Locke in a report released on April 6,2022.
In the early 2020s,the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area in U.S. state of Minnesota experienced a wave of civil unrest,comprising peaceful demonstrations and riots,against systemic racism toward black Americans,notably in the form of police violence. A number of events occurred,beginning soon after the murder of George Floyd,an unarmed black man,by a white Minneapolis police officer on May 25,2020. National Public Radio characterized the events as cultural reckoning on topics of racial injustice.
Leneal Frazier was a 40-year-old African American man who was killed in Minneapolis at about 12:30 a.m. on July 6,2021,in a car crash with officer Brian Cummings of the Minneapolis Police Department. That night,Cummings was pursuing suspected thieves in a vehicle at a high rate of speed through a residential neighborhood and ran a red light when he unintentionally struck Frazier's vehicle at a street intersection. Frazier,who was an innocent bystander and not involved in the police chase,died at the scene. Cummings faced criminal charges for operating his police vehicle negligently and causing Frazier's death. In mid 2023,he pleaded guilty to the criminal charge of vehicular homicide and received a nine-month prison sentence.
