Minneapolis police department faces civil rights investigation over George Floyd death

Review will evaluate department’s policies, procedures, and practices over the past 10 years

The Minnesota Department of Human Rights has filed a civil rights charge against the Minnesota Police Department in the wake of the death of George Floyd, the state’s governor announced on Tuesday.

The investigation will review the department’s policies, procedures, and practices over the past 10 years to determine if they engaged in systemic discriminatory practices, according to a statement from governor Tim Walz.

“My administration will use every tool at our disposal to deconstruct generations of systemic racism in Minnesota”, the governor wrote on Twitter.

“This effort is one of many steps to come in our effort to restore trust with communities that have been unseen and unheard for far too long.”

The announcement follows several days of protests and riots throughout the state after the death of Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody after a Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground by his neck for a prolonged period of time.

“We’re not going to restore peace on our streets by having a bigger group of national guard show up,” the governor said in a press conference on Tuesday.

“We’re not going to establish peace on our streets by keeping a curfew in place all the time. We’re going to establish peace on our streets when we address the systemic issues that caused it in the first place,”

The investigation will be the first time the state has launched a civil rights investigation into alleged systemic discriminatory practices of its largest police department, according to the governor.

Gov Walz said that “structural change” needs to begin to be able to address systemic racism in Minnesota and across the country, adding that “it needs to start somewhere.”