# Minneapolis *Most populous city in Minnesota and seat of Hennepin County. This entry covers its municipal, police and school institutions as documented in filed and published records.* Minneapolis is the most populous city in Minnesota, with 429,954 residents counted in the 2020 census, and the county seat of [[Hennepin County, Minnesota]].[^1] Hennepin County's own history page records that the Territorial Legislature created the county on March 6, 1852, with Minneapolis as its seat.[^2] The city counted 521,718 residents in 1950 and 434,400 in 1970.[^3][^4] The [[Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party]] dominates city politics, and voters have not chosen a Republican mayor since 1975.[^1] This entry describes the city's institutions by their documented outputs. Minneapolis enacted a municipal fair employment ordinance in 1947.[^5] Its police department then became the subject of the following actions: - a state civil rights charge, filed June 1, 2020; - a state probable-cause finding of race discrimination, issued April 27, 2022; - a federal findings report, issued June 16, 2023; - a federal consent decree, filed January 6, 2025 and dismissed with prejudice on May 27, 2025; - a state court-enforceable settlement, which remains open.[^6][^7][^8][^9] On May 21, 2025, the [[United States Department of Justice]], which had issued the 2023 findings, retracted them.[^10] The city is a named defendant in a pending federal suit over sanctuary policies, along with the State, Saint Paul and Hennepin County. Its school district is a defendant in a pending Title VII suit.[^11][^12] On January 14, 2026, the United States sued the State itself under Title VII. It announced the case in a release titled "United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime."[^13] Each complaint is described below by what it alleges and by its status as of the record. ## History ### Fair employment Hubert H. Humphrey took office as mayor on July 2, 1945. In 1946, the Minneapolis FEPC under his administration began investigating employment discrimination.[^14] The history text of the [[Minnesota Department of Human Rights]] (MDHR) dates the city's fair employment ordinance to 1947 and places it among the first in the country.[^5] A [[Minnesota Historical Society]] LibGuide on Humphrey gives the year as 1948 and states that the city "enacted the nation's first municipal fair employment law." The project's dossier records that superlative as unverified, because no comparative survey has been located.[^15] ### Labor and policing, 1970–1995 Minneapolis teachers went on strike in April 1970. The project's timeline records the strike as precipitating the Public Employee Labor Relations Act.[^16] Tony Bouza, police chief from 1980 to 1989, later published critiques of police culture.[^17] City homicides rose from 60 in 1991 to 67 in 1993. The city recorded 63 homicides for 1994 and 97 for 1995, the highest count in its history.[^18] In the same years, the Vice Lords, Gangster Disciples and Latin Kings were active on the North Side. Discussions of a federal gang task force began in 1993.[^19] ### Housing records In 2016, the [[University of Minnesota]]'s Mapping Prejudice project began documenting racial covenants in Minneapolis housing.[^20] ### 2020–2021 George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. Three former Minneapolis police officers were later convicted of federal civil rights violations in connection with his death.[^21] The city announced an overnight curfew on June 2, 2020.[^22] On June 26, 2020, the City Council set in motion a plan to dismantle the police department.[^23] The Charter Commission took public comment on public safety on July 1–3, 2020.[^24] On March 12, 2021, during jury selection in the Chauvin trial, the city reached a $27 million settlement with Floyd's family.[^25] On November 2, 2021, voters rejected Question 2 by 56 to 44. Question 2 was a charter amendment that would have replaced the police department with a Department of Public Safety.[^26] ## Economy The city describes its finances through its credit ratings. An August 2025 city release reported AAA ratings from all three bond agencies for the second straight year, and the city hosts an S&P rating report that corroborates this.[^27][^28] The property base under those ratings shows the following: - **Commercial mortgage distress.** In August 2026, CRED iQ ranked the Minneapolis–St. Paul market first among the fifty largest commercial mortgage-backed securities markets, at 55.1 percent distress on $4.0 billion outstanding as of the July 2026 reporting period. CRED iQ cautioned that the top metros are "shaped by a handful of very large loans."[^29] The national comparison rate was 10.91 percent in July 2026.[^30] - **Office values.** The Hennepin County Assessor's 2026 report records an 11.6 percent decline in Minneapolis office values.[^31] - **Commercial tax base.** Twin Cities Business reported that the city's commercial-industrial estimated market value fell from $13.2 billion in 2023 to $9.6 billion in 2026. It also reported that the commercial share of net tax capacity fell from 34.7 percent in 2016 to 24.9 percent in 2026.[^32] - **A single tower.** The value of the [[Ameriprise Financial Center]] fell from $200 million in 2016 to $6.25 million in January 2025, according to Axios.[^33] - **Office vacancy.** CBRE put metro office vacancy at 25.2 percent in the first quarter of 2026.[^34] - **Regional tax-base sharing.** Under Minn. Stat. ch. 473F (1971), the [[Fiscal disparities program (Minnesota)]] pools commercial-industrial tax base across the region. The [[Metropolitan Council (Minnesota)]] ranks Minneapolis first among net contributors, using payable-2023 data.[^35][^36] ## Government ### Elected offices Jacob Frey, a former council member, won the mayoralty in 2017 and was re-elected in 2021 and 2025.[^1][^37] Thirteen council members represent the city's 13 wards. A 2021 ballot question shifted authority from the council toward the mayor.[^1] In the 2017 election, Jeremiah Ellison won the Ward 5 seat over incumbent Blong Yang. Ballotpedia records his third council victory in November 2023 and his departure from the council on January 5, 2026.[^38] ### Disparity study On February 15, 2024, sixteen governments, including the City of Minneapolis, Hennepin County and Hennepin Healthcare, commissioned the *2025 Minnesota Joint Disparity Study* from Keen Independent Research. The Phase 1 report was completed on July 30, 2025. Its methodology is described as "based on relevant case law," and Holland & Knight served as legal subconsultant.[^39] ### Child nutrition prosecutions On January 28, 2025, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota announced two guilty pleas. One was by a co-owner of Safari Restaurant, which "received more than $16 million in fraudulent Federal Child Nutrition Program funds." The other was by co-defendant Abdi Nur Salah, a former senior aide to Mayor Jacob Frey.[^40] The project's at-issue record identifies Safari as the largest single identified [[Feeding Our Future]] site.[^40] ### Police department: state proceedings MDHR filed a charge against the city and the [[Minneapolis Police Department]] on June 1, 2020; the project's timeline dates the filing to July 2020.[^6][^41] On April 27, 2022, the Department found "probable cause that the City and MPD engage in a pattern or practice of race discrimination in violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act."[^6] Its report made the following findings: - 13 of the 14 people killed by Minneapolis police officers since 2010 were people of color or Indigenous. - Black residents, who made up 19 percent of the city's population, accounted for 63 percent of recorded use-of-force incidents from 2010 to 2020. - From 2017 to 2020, Black residents accounted for 54 percent of officer-initiated traffic stops and 78 percent of searches.[^6] The resulting settlement in [[Minnesota Department of Human Rights v. City of Minneapolis (court-enforceable settlement agreement)]], No. 27-CV-23-4177, was filed on March 31, 2023. Judge Karen Janisch of the [[Hennepin County District Court]] approved it on July 13, 2023; the project's case table lists July 13 as the filing date. The settlement terminates only on a judicial finding of "full, effective, and sustained compliance."[^42][^9][^43] The [[independent evaluator]], ELEFA, began work on March 18, 2024, twenty-two months after the probable-cause finding. The matter remains open as of the record.[^42][^43] ### Police department: federal proceedings On April 21, 2021, one day after the Chauvin verdict, the Department of Justice opened the [[Minneapolis pattern-or-practice investigation]] under 34 U.S.C. § 12601.[^8] Its 89-page findings report of June 16, 2023 found reasonable cause that MPD "uses excessive force, including unjustified deadly force." The report also documented discriminatory policing and violations of the rights of people in behavioral health crises.[^7] On January 6, 2025, the Department filed a consent decree in [[United States v. City of Minneapolis (MPD consent decree)]], No. 0:25-cv-00048 (D. Minn.), and the city approved it the same day. The decree provided for an independent monitor. The project's case table lists the decree at 171 pages; the project's dossier, citing the Department's release, gives 169.[^44][^45][^46] On May 21, 2025, in release 25-534, the Civil Rights Division took three actions: - It moved to dismiss the Minneapolis and Louisville suits with prejudice. - It closed both investigations. - It retracted their findings, along with those for Phoenix, Trenton, Memphis, Mount Vernon, Oklahoma City and the [[Louisiana State Police]]. Assistant Attorney General Dhillon described the action as "ending the Biden Civil Rights Division's failed experiment of handcuffing local leaders."[^10] Judge Paul A. Magnuson dismissed the case with prejudice on May 27, 2025, denying the joint motion to approve the decree as moot. He questioned whether the suit presented a case or controversy. He also called the decree "superfluous" because of the city's settlement with MDHR, under which the reforms continue.[^8] An at-issue row in the project's record gives the dismissal date as May 28 and quotes the judge's "grave misgivings about the proposed consent decree serving the public interest."[^8] The same Department that withdrew the 2023 findings still posts the findings report on its site.[^7] ### Federal suits naming the city, its schools or the State - **Sanctuary policies.** [[United States v. Minnesota, Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Hennepin County (sanctuary policies)]], No. 0:25-cv-03798 (D. Minn.), was filed on September 29, 2025 (DOJ release 25-962). It challenges municipal separation ordinances. As of the record, the suit against Saint Paul was dismissed on July 20, 2026, and the remainder proceeds per the docket.[^11][^47] - **[[Minneapolis Public Schools]].** *United States v. Minneapolis Public Schools*, No. 0:25-cv-04571 (D. Minn.), is a Title VII suit filed on December 9, 2025. The complaint alleges that three provisions of the district's collective bargaining agreement discriminate against teachers on the basis of race: Article 15 layoff protections, the Black Men Teach memorandum of agreement, and BIPOC salary enhancements. The allegations have not been adjudicated.[^12][^48] - **State hiring statute.** [[United States v. State of Minnesota (0:26-cv-00273)]] was filed on January 14, 2026 under Title VII of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]. The complaint cites [[Minn. Stat. § 43A.191]] eight times. These citations include subd. 3(c)'s requirement that an agency explain the reason for hiring a non-affirmative candidate.[^49] - Attorney General Pamela Bondi certified the case as a matter of general public importance. DOJ release No. 26-21 titled it "United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime."[^13] - The federal government has used "regime" for governments it opposes. For example, the [[Iraq Liberation Act]] of 1998 states a policy of supporting efforts to remove "the regime headed by Saddam Hussein." The project's catalogue of U.S.-government "regime" usages finds Minnesota the only U.S. state so described.[^50] - The project's record ties the suit to two Supreme Court decisions. The first is [[Bostock v. Clayton County]], decided 6–3 on June 15, 2020, twenty-one days after Floyd's death; the United States now presses its reading of Title VII's "because of sex."[^51] The second is [[Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services]] (2025), which held that Title VII's disparate-treatment provision "draws no distinctions between majority-group plaintiffs and minority-group plaintiffs."[^52] - **Environmental justice grants.** In April 2025, the Minneapolis Foundation and two co-grantmakers sued EPA in Maryland federal court over terminated environmental justice grantmaker awards, in [[Minneapolis Foundation et al. v. EPA (Environmental Justice grantmaker terminations)]]. As reported by the Star Tribune, the court found on June 17, 2025 that the termination was arbitrary and capricious. It ordered $180 million restored across the three grantmakers, or $60 million per recipient.[^53] ## In the Minnesota record ### When - July 2, 1945: Humphrey takes office as mayor.[^14] - 1947: City fair employment ordinance enacted.[^5] - June 1, 2020: MDHR charge filed.[^6] - April 21, 2021: Federal pattern-or-practice investigation opened.[^8] - April 27, 2022: MDHR probable-cause finding issued.[^6] - June 16, 2023: DOJ findings report issued.[^7] - July 13, 2023: State settlement approved.[^42] - March 18, 2024: ELEFA begins as independent evaluator.[^9] - January 6, 2025: Federal consent decree filed.[