Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday launched a sweeping investigation into policing practices in Minneapolis after a jury’s verdict Tuesday that former city police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd.
The probe “will assess whether the Minneapolis Police Department engages in a pattern or practice of using excessive force, including during protests,” Garland told a news conference.
He said the department has been reaching out to community groups and members of the public to learn about their experiences with the Minneapolis police
Garland said the probe is being undertaken, in part, to help rebuild trust between police and the communities they serve, and he pledged that a public report would be filed at the end of the investigation if it concludes there is “reasonable cause” to believe there is unlawful policing.
“I know that justice is sometimes slow, sometimes elusive and sometimes never comes,” Garland said. “The Department of Justice will be unwavering in its pursuit of equal justice under law.”
The announcement comes a day after former officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death last May, setting off a wave of relief but also sadness across the country. The Black man’s death prompted months of mass protests against policing in the U.S.
The Justice Department is already investigating whether the officers involved in Floyd’s death violated Floyd’s civil rights. The investigation announced Wednesday is known as a “pattern or practice” and will be a more sweeping probe of the entire department and may result in major changes to policing there, the official said. The official had direct knowledge of the matter but was not authorized to speak publicly about the upcoming announcement, planned for Wednesday morning.
The investigation will examine practices used by police and whether the department engages in discriminatory practices. It will also look into the department’s handling of misconduct allegations among other things, the person said. It’s unclear whether the years under investigation will begin when Floyd died or before.
The decision comes as President Joe Biden has promised his administration would not rest following the jury’s verdict in the case. In a Tuesday evening speech, he said much more needed to be done.
“‘I can’t breathe.’ Those were George Floyd’s last words,” Biden said. “We can’t let those words die with him. We have to keep hearing those words. We must not turn away. We can’t turn away.”
The Justice Department had considered opening a pattern or practice investigation into the police department soon after Floyd’s death, but Attorney General Bill Barr was hesitant to do so at the time, fearing that it could cause further divisions in law enforcement amid widespread protests and civil unrest, three people familiar with the matter told the AP.
The Justice Department on Friday withdrew a policy put in place during former President Donald Trump’s administration that limited the tools the federal government could use to monitor and probe police misconduct.
Garland in a memo to staff said the department would return to its traditional practices of investigating state and local police departments, allowing unit heads to approve most settlements and consent decrees.
This report contains material from Bloomberg News, The Associated Press, and Reuters.
Source: Newmax
