A federal investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department, launched in the wake of the 2020 murder of George Floyd, found that the police department and the city itself engage in a “pattern or practice” of excessive force and racial discrimination that violates both the United States Constitution and federal law. The so-called pattern-or-practice investigation — like the federal investigations into police departments in cities including Ferguson, Missouri, Baltimore and, most recently, Louisville, Kentucky — focused on widespread issues within the police department rather than individual incidents. |