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In Minneapolis, the video of Tyre Nichols's fatal beating at the hands of Memphis police officers triggered unwelcome flashbacks. Just two and a half years ago, the city erupted with riots after video emerged of George Floyd's murder. In the aftermath, hopes that Minneapolis's troubled Police Department might be reformed fell apart as politics, polarization and mistrust eroded support for even modest improvements. For many in this scarred city, there's a feeling that nothing has changed.
As Memphis begins to grapple with the aftermath of its own tragedy, mistakes in Minneapolis can serve as a cautionary tale. The chance to fix a broken, violent system is rare. In order to use that opportunity effectively, advocates for reform need to embrace specific, actionable proposals, while lawmakers and other civic leaders avoid overpromising. If either side falters, mistrust and a missed opportunity are what's left behind.
The Minneapolis Police Department has had well-documented problems with its officers, including rampant racial discrimination, since the early 20th century. Despite these well-documented problems, at the time of Floyd's murder neither the Minneapolis City Council nor the mayor had a serious, specific plan to reform the department. So, during the angry summer of 2020, activists flooded the public square with calls to defund the police — and council members pledged to fulfill that goal, despite most harboring hopes for a more nuanced approach. For the next 18 months the debate over "defund" overwhelmed any nuances, and led natural allies of police reform to back away for fear of being associated with a culture-war slogan.
A year later, council members introduced a complex ballot initiative that would have replaced the Minneapolis Police Department with a Department of Public Safety focused on public health solutions to crime. But the initiative left the specifics of how the new department would function, or even be organized, to a City Council that had lost the trust of many since the Floyd riots. Despite widespread support for reform, the ballot initiative failed. Four of its strongest advocates on the council also lost re-election. There are many reasons for those failures, but — based on my experience accompanying pro-initiative canvassers in Minneapolis — a lack of specifics scared off many voters.
Fortunately, Memphis already has a comprehensive, highly detailed blueprint for police reform. In 2020, Mayor Jim Strickland drafted lawmakers, law enforcement leaders, faith leaders and civil rights activists to create "Reimagining Policing." The report, released in 2021, includes specific recommendations on how to improve Memphis' police department. Among the suggestions are regular mental and emotional health screenings and expanded collection and accessibility of police data, including by demographic and type of interaction.
These are worthy ideas that already command community support. Advocates of police reform should push the city to implement them and other recommendations immediately. Doing so will not only build consensus for more difficult reforms, but will create the perception that city leadership is capable of coming together and actually doing something. Minneapolis squandered its own chance.