Memo from Glidden, Gordon, Hodges to Rybak

To: Mayor Rybak

From: Council Members Elizabeth Glidden, Cam Gordon, Betsy Hodges

Date: Sept 25, 2006

Re: Chief Appointment

CC: Council Members

As we move forward in the selection of the new Police Chief for the City of Minneapolis, we have unanswered questions and concerns about Interim Chief Dolan’s ability to move the Minneapolis Police Department in the right direction. We share concerns about his performance as Interim Chief:

1. Incorrect data sent to the FBI resulting in a public black eye for the City

2. Failure to communicate with community groups prior to rollout of SAFE CITY initiative

3. Returning Officer Andersen to the street before the investigation was complete or the community’s concerns had been assuaged

4. Poor communication and process regarding cameras at Cedar-Riverside

5. Gave misleading information to Council Members regarding Dr. Campion as a consultant for the City

6. Defensiveness rather than action regarding redlining

7. Support for the “alley ordinance” ahead of Council action

8. Inadequate progress on CRA complaint backlog and refusal to discipline many sustained cases

While he has done some good work in his time as Interim, all these incidents together give us great concern about his capacity to successfully execute his role as Chief of Police for the City of Minneapolis.

Irrespective of those missteps, our fundamental concern is about his ability to be an agent for true change within the Department. While it is to his credit that he has served the City for many years and has built strong relationships within the force, it is just those factors that make us question his capacity to stand up to the reactionary forces in the Department that actively work to suppress accountability and progressive change. There has been no clear reform agenda for the MPD coming either from your office or from Interim Chief Dolan, and we feel it is well past time to articulate some of the basic changes necessary to create a police department in which we and the community can have faith and with which we and the community can have strong relationships. Only through trust and strong relationships with the community can the MPD begin to effectively and responsibly address Minneapolis’ public safety challenges. We and the community must trust that the MPD is an agent of the community, acts within its authority, and holds its officers accountable to the law and to the city they serve.

In the absence of a clear plan for internal change in the MPD, we have taken it upon ourselves to create what we intend to be the foundation of a reform agenda for the MPD. What follows is not only an outline of the work we think needs to be done in the police department; it is also a set of criteria that serve as one set of measures against which we think the new Chief’s performance should be judged on a yearly basis. Thank you for your time and attention to this. We look forward to an earnest and thoughtful discussion about the future of the MPD.

Proposed City of Minneapolis Police Reform Agenda

Recommended by Glidden, Gordon, and Hodges

1. Commit to actively support efforts to separate managers from rank-and-file employees in the Minneapolis Police Federation

2. Support for the CRA

a. Support that the CRA board is the legal authority about whether a case is sustained

b. Advocate for CRA subpoena power at the legislature

c. Agree to discipline sustained cases

d. Remove complaint backlog and develop clear and precise policies for timely action on future decisions

3. Agree to new policy regarding discipline of officers, including but not limited to:

e. Graduated discipline for multiple offenses, including offenses reported to the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights, Minnesota Department of Human Rights, and cases tried in civil courts. This would include support for centralizing data regarding officer misconduct from all those sources.

f. Keeping officers on leave after critical incidents until the investigation has been completed and the community has been informed

g. Reform in the Police Federation, as outlined in point one above

4. Diversity at all levels of the MPD, including hiring and promotion. This would include a comprehensive plan for changes in hiring practices, promotional practices, and department culture that hinders retention of officers in protected classes

5. Commitment to address and end racial profiling, including data collection, explicit policy, and anti-racism training for officers

6. Support for a competent and proactive finance administrator position within the department who is charged with making all financial, technological, and budgetary decisions for the Department, who reports directly to the Chief, and who is empowered to set fiscal policy guidelines for the Department

7. Commitment to community policing, including funding for the plan and long-term policy and practice changes that would support the new paradigm

8. Complete the audit of the Internal Affairs Unit in 2007, with a commitment to implementing its recommendations including those regarding discipline practices

9. Actively support overturning ordinances regarding selective-enforcement crimes like lurking

10. A commitment to performance measures and outcomes that aren’t solely about crime or arrest rates, including city liability and supervisor accountability for employee performance

11. Complete all items in the Federal Mediation Agreement

12. A long-term vision and strategic plan for public safety throughout the entire city that includes all relevant stakeholders