Floyd, who was Black, was killed May 25, 2020, by a white Minneapolis police officer while others stood by, touching off months of protests. On Friday, Garland said the federal investigation revealed long-standing problems existed in the department before that moment.

With regard to racial bias, Garland says the Department found MPD officers “stopped Black and Native American people nearly six times more often than white people in situations that did not result in arrest or citation, given their shares of the population.”

Garland says investigators also found several examples of officers who were not held accountable for racist conduct “until there was a public outcry.”The DOJ found MPD officers had a pattern of being too quick to fire their weapons, as well as an over-reliance on Tasers, even on people who were not being violent.These findings now give the Justice Department leverage to enter into a “consent decree” with Minneapolis — essentially, a reform plan that’s controlled by a federal court. Similar arrangements have been in place for years in cities such as Baltimore and Seattle. Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara were at Garland’s announcement in Minneapolis, and Frey called the DOJ’s report “objective” and “thorough.”

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