Lack of progress and failures in transparency were among the main concerns expressed by Minneapolis residents Tuesday night during a public hearing held by the city’s Community Commission on Police Oversight (CCPO).
The hearing was the first conducted by the commission since holding its initial meeting more than a year ago. The 15-member body was created in an effort to overhaul the city’s existing police oversight, which critics said was impotent, ineffective and purposely hindered by city officials when the body stopped holding meetings for months due to failures to fill vacancies.
But problems and criticisms of inefficiency have also plagued this iteration of police oversight. The CCPO has made no policy recommendations yet, and they’ve conducted few review panels amid a backlog of nearly 200 misconduct complaints within the Office of Police Conduct Review.
Michelle Hofeldt, a Phillips West resident, told the commissioners they were frustrated that among the commission’s duties was to make policy recommendations to Minneapolis Police Department Chief Brian O’Hara, but after a year of existence the body has yet to make a single recommendation.
“I don’t think that the CCPO has enough power because you can only make recommendations and that has been a problem with previous civilian oversight boards – they make a recommendation and the (MPD) chief ignores it – but you’re not even making recommendations,” they said. “That’s eroding public trust in you and that’s eroding public trust further in police accountability.”
Related | Problems continue to plague the Minneapolis Community Commission on Police Oversight
Several speakers said community input didn’t seem to be a priority for commissioners, citing the decision to put the public comment portion at the very end of their regular meetings. Another point of contention on transparency brought by residents to the commissioners was the formation of the CCPO’s work groups, the subcommittees of the commission. The work groups aren’t official committees so they aren’t subject to open meeting laws, promoting concern from many residents who are invested in the police oversight process.
“I cannot imagine a public body in the city of Minneapolis in 2024, that deals with police-related issues, that sees some legitimacy in meeting in private,” said Ward 6 resident Chuck Turchik. “That is astounding.”
At the start of the meeting, commissioners gave an overview of the CCPO’s duties and gave updates on the progress of their various work groups. The commission’s duties include researching police policies, assessing training and misconduct data and making recommendations to the city council, mayor or O’Hara. Commissioners also sit on review panels made up of three civilians and two officers that go over misconduct cases and decide whether to recommend discipline to the chief.
Commissioner Mara Schanfield said her policy research work group has been reviewing policies of similar cities under consent decrees. She’s also been working with consent decree monitor Effective Law Enforcement For All (ELEFA) and MPD’s Implementation Unit to ensure the commission has a part in police policy before implementation.
Andrew Kluis of Communities United Against Police Brutality the issue of transparency is by far the biggest takeaway from the hearing.
“I can understand why we can’t hear details about the specific cases, but why can’t we hear details about what they think would be good bylaws?” he said. “When the policy committees are discussing what policies they look at, how about having that open to the community, even just to listen, so we can maybe send them an email later saying, ‘Hey this is a policy we should look at,’ but it’s just a total black box of no transparency in government.”
Mohamed Ibrahim
Mohamed Ibrahim is MinnPost’s environment and public safety reporter. He can be reached at mibrahim@minnpost.com.
