The following is a timeline of race relations and policing in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, providing details with a history of policing in the Twin Cities in the U.S. state of Minnesota from the nineteenth century to the present day. The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, with its headquarters in downtown Minneapolis, is one of the "largest law enforcement agencies in Minnesota" with division and unit facilities throughout Hennepin County. Twin cities, Saint Paul and Minneapolis, have their own police departments, the Minneapolis Police Department, which was established in 1867 and the Saint Paul Police Department. A union for rank and file officers in Minneapolis—the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis (the Federation)—was established in 1917.
Since its establishment in 1867, the Minneapolis Police Department has had 52 Chiefs of Police.
The current and 54th chief of policewho began his term in November 2022is Brian O'Hara, who succeeded Medaria Arradondothe first African American to serve as chief of the Minneapolis Police Department. O’Hara was the first police chief to be appointed after the murder of George Floyd.
An investigative division within the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rightsthe Office of Police Conduct Review (OPCR)reviews cases of alleged violation of MPD policies by police officers including "use of excessive force, inappropriate language or attitude, harassment, and discrimination."
Timeline Nineteenth century March 9, 1867: In response to a request from the mayor of Minneapolis for a police force, on March 9, 1867, four officers were appointed to the Minneapolis Police Department. online version The MPD was established shortly after the end of the American Civil War (1861 – 1865), an internal war pitting the northern United States against the southern United States —the Confederacy—primarily fought over the enslavement of black people. The Dakota War which was part of the Sioux Wars and the American Civil War, had ended in 1862. At that time, the population of Minneapolis was about 5,000. 1867–1917: In the early years newly elected mayors would fire MPD officers and replace them with "friends, family, and their supporters," according to Fossum's 1996 History of the Minneapolis Police Department. Cited by MPD 150 2017 1890: Augustine E. Costello published his History of the Fire and Police Departments of Minneapolis: Their Origin, Progress, and Development. 1892: The first Minnesota African-American police officer was James H. Burrell, who joined the St. Paul Police Department in 1892.
Twentieth century January 7, 1901: A. A. Ames (1842 – 1911) began his final term as mayor of Minneapolis. He appointed his brother, Colonel Fred W. Ames as chief of police and a former gambler, Norman W. King as detective. The Minneapolis Police force was transformed into Ames' army. The police would put pressure on criminal organizations and Ames' people would take money from various criminal activities in the city all with the knowledge of local citizens. By 1902, Ames was drinking heavily and people working under him were fighting among themselves. Extortion schemes increased. Attempts by the Hennepin County sheriff to crack down on the widespread criminal activities were quashed, but even average citizens were aware of the city's descent into corruption. April 1902: A grand jury was drawn composed of "unselected citizens" with Hovey C. Clarke, local businessman, as foreman. They "received no special instructions from the bench" and the county prosecutor put only routine work before the grand jury. Clarke dismissed the county prosecutor when he refused to investigate A. A. Ames and his brother, Fred. Clarke hired private investigators to gather evidence on Ames, his brother, and those who worked with them. Initially Ames was convicted, but the case was overturned by the Minnesota Supreme Court. 1902: Alderman Percy Jones as acting mayor removed all of police officers that Ames had hired and replaced them with the police officers that Ames had previously fired. Jones appointed a "church deacon and personal friend to be chief of police." Jones also stated that There would "be no gambling, with police connivance, in the city of Minneapolis during his term of office." By 1902, while Mayor Ames was still in office, the MPD had become infamous in the United States for the boldness of its corruption and crimes. By 1902 The MPD had five precincts and one paddy wagon. When the Citizens' Alliance was established, the MPD would "harass, infiltrate, and attack labor unions" on behalf of the Alliance. 1909: A chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was established in the Twin Cities. 1913–1915: According to the Twin Cities PBS May 4, 2007 report, with the rise of the steel industry in Minnesota and the lack of workers during World War I, the steel plant lured "blacks from the cotton fields of the South" with the offer of good wages. Working-class immigrants and whites felt that their jobs were threatened, as large numbers of newly arrived African Americans from the South, who were part of the Great Migration to the industrial North, competed for the lower-grade jobs. 1917: The MPD celebrated its 50th anniversary. By 1910, the population of Minneapolis was 301,408 making it the 18th largest city in the United States. Historian Michael Fossum, described the MPD in 1917 as 300 officers "without training exerting control over 300,000." 1917: During the 1917 Streetcar strikes the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, in the city of Minneapolis, the county seat, deputized the private army which the Citizens' Alliance had formed. They were armed with bayonets and rifle against the strikers. The Alliance army was supported by the local police. The local Minneapolis Alliance was sponsored by the Commercial Club and other business leaders, The Citizens' Alliance groups in Minneapolis were composed of smaller local associations that united in the belief that organized labor was "evil and un-American." In a 1903 address at the Minneapolis Commercial Club, David M. Parry, the first president of the Citizens' Industrial Alliance, said that "we should endeavor to strike at the root of the matter, and that is to be found in the wide spread socialistic sentiment among certain classes of people." The union for the MPD—Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis (the Federation)—was established, in spite of the MPD's opposition to labor unions. The Federation became part of the American Federation of Labor. June 15, 1920: In her 2013 publication, The Ku Klux Klan in Minnesota, author Elizabeth Hatle wrote that Ku Klux Klan had emerged in Minnesota in the wake of the June 15, 1920 lynchings of three African-American circus workers, Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie in Duluth, Minnesota by a white mob of thousands. Although there was no evidence, the three had been accused and arrested for an alleged rape and robbery of a nineteen-year-old woman. June 20, 1922: An ad in the Minnesota Messenger announced a "Citizens Meeting For Public Safety" at the Elks’ Hall on June 25 inviting "the clergy and all prominent Negroes." The headline read "Negroes Protest against Police Atrocities in the City." By 1922, "popular support for the Ku Klux Klan was surging" in Minneapolis. Following the meeting, the NAACP met with city officials including Mayor George E. Leach. In 1923 Leach was a KKK target. 1920s: Hennepin County, Minnesota jurors were "essentially creatures" of the Citizens Alliance. Grand jurors were selected from a list of 200, that had been provided by district court judges. CCA members and their wives predominated. The Citizens Alliance promoted Open shop and strongly opposed labor union's support of Closed shop, where union membership is a requirement of employment. 1920–1933: During prohibition, the Minnesota Supreme Court disallowed convictions of alcohol possessions, with the exception of those directly involved in selling alcohol. July 20, 1934: During the Minneapolis general strike of 1934 which lasted from May 20 to August 22, an incident known as the Battle of Bloody Friday took place. The Minneapolis Police Department shot at truck drivers who were on strike. They injured 67 picketers and killing two strikers, John Belor and Henry Ness. The MPD had allegedly "mobilized 700 private citizens and confronted thousands of striking truck drivers. 1945: Prior to his election as mayor of Minneapolis, Hubert Humphrey appointed Bradshaw Mintener as chair of a 12-person committee to choose a new police chief who would "act decisively against organized crime, enforce the law evenly, bring down the high rate of crime and juvenile delinquency, and reform the corrupt police department." During his mayoral campaign, Humphrey assured the influential newspaper and magazine publisher, John Cowles Sr., that he was "determined to rid Minneapolis of its Syndicate and Corruption, who along with Chicago gangsters, ran the city's flourishing gambling, prostitution, and illegal liquor sales operations and fed the culture of corruption in the police department." During his mayoral campaign he had promised "action on civil rights." July 2: Humphrey began his 3-year term as mayor. When he left his mayoral office in 1948, he served as Senator and later vice-president of the United States, Hubert Humphrey. At that time police officers Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) were only required to have a grade eight education. Humphrey tried to bring "professional standards" to the "inbred, under-educated police force," and raised "hiring standards and annual pay." As mayor, he started sending police officers to the University of Minnesota for training in what was then called "human relations." In August, MPD officers "arrested, jailed and interrogated" two black women who had refused to comply with police orders for men to "produce their draft cards" and for women to "open up their purses" at Dreamland Café. Humphrey personally drove directly to the police station and had the women released that evening. One of the jailed women worked for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, a black newspaper that had been founded in 1934. She contacted Spokesman-Recorders founder, editor and publisher, Cecil Newman. Newman contacted Hubert Humphrey, the newly elected mayor of Minneapolis who had promised "action on civil rights," Newman had was Humphrey's friend and had supported his bid for election. By the time he left the office of mayor after three years, he had "made great progress in Minneapolis in parts of his civil rights agenda," he but he had "never came close to reforming the police department," according to The Washington Post. Mintener's committee chose Ed Ryan as Chief of Police, replacing Elmer F. Hillner, who had served from 1943 to 1944. Ryan remained as Chief of Police for one year and was replaced by G.W. MacLean in 1946.