“We’re trying to change a culture,” said David Douglass, president and cofounder of Effective Law Enforcement for All (ELEFA).
The nonprofit organization selected by the City of Minneapolis to act as the independent evaluator overseeing compliance with the March 2023 settlement agreement between the city, its police department and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) held its most recent community meeting at the Minneapolis Urban League, 2100 Plymouth Ave. N., on Saturday, Oct. 3.
Douglass explained the city’s slow progress in police reform. He listed policy, training, data and audit, and accountability as the “pillars of how we drive change in the department,” adding that the desired changes are “reductions in (the) inappropriate use of force (and) discriminatory policing.”
After introducing new and continuing members of the Minneapolis ELEFA team, Douglass turned to the newly-completed two-year evaluation plan.
The settlement agreement with MDHR requires a new plan every two years and Douglass acknowledged that the unveiling of the new plan, covering years three and four of the reform process, is coming out “halfway through year three.” He said this was due in part to the fact that “the goals the city and the (police) department had set for itself and were reflected in (the first two-year) plan were overly optimistic.” He said ELEFA has worked with the city and MPD since early in 2026 to create a new two-year evaluation plan, one they “hope … will be more realistic.”
“The way we’ve generally approached it, we’ve tied our evaluation to when they think they’ll get stuff done,” he said.
Minneapolis’ 2nd Precinct, 1911 Central Ave. NE. (Minneapolis Police Department)
Implementing the new two-year plan
Eric Melancon, who works on data analysis for the team, discussed the goal of putting the foundational work of the first two years and its emphasis on policy into tangible and observable changes in years three and four.
He said new team members have been brought in to help with auditing. This will include the review of bodyworn camera footage. “We’ll use that data to test whether or not (MPD) are following those policies, to what extent … if they’re not following the policies, is there correction.”
“That’s how you make it last,” he said.
Regarding progress to date, Melancon said that the new use-of-force policies have largely been trained and that “those policies took effect this year.”
The civilian community complaint backlog is also expected to be “fully cleared by the end of … year three,” he said. Year three of the current evaluation plan will end March 17, 2027.
Survey results
Before those in attendance and the ELEFA team broke into small groups to allow for more specific questioning and an opportunity to meet the team, a survey that was conducted May 11-June 11, 2026 was discussed.
The benchmark survey was conducted by Dr. Alex del Carmen. Del Carmen joined the meeting remotely and said the survey “sets a starting point … and each of the yearly surveys (will) show which direction things are moving.”
The citywide survey was conducted online and in person. Del Carmen reported that residents were most critical of MPD “on accountability and fairness. Twenty-nine out of the 30 … rating questions came out more negative than positive,” he said. For MPD officers, del Carmen said “officers trust their teams … but not the system above them.” Only 5% felt that the civilian complaint process treated officers fairly. A notable difference existed between the two groups on the idea of whether residents are treated fairly across racial lines by the MPD: 32% of residents agreed, but 88% of officers reported this to be the case.
Douglass said the team would conduct the annual surveys of the community and MPD in order to “look for trends over time.”
Culture change
To change a culture, Douglass said, you change the rules and policies, train to these new policies and finally provide supervision that is “reinforcing the rules and the education that the officers have received.”
“Even in the best departments people do the wrong things, and so then ultimately you have to have … expedient, fair and objective accountability and discipline. And they don’t have that here,” said Douglass. It’s a long process he added, saying, “we will probably not be here with you at the end of that road.”
ELEFA’s term under the settlement agreement runs until March 2028.
The current two-year evaluation plan and survey results can be found at www.elefa.com under Reports & Documents.