Minneapolis Review

Today, Mayor Jacob Frey and Interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman announce new officer health and wellness initiatives in addition to an updated discipline matrix. The new reforms reflect the City of Minneapolis’ commitment to continued reform in the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) with a focus on transparent and accountable practices to best serve the city.

“Over the past two years we have pushed forward dozens of police reforms, and we aren’t slowing down now,” said Frey. “First, officers need to be at their best while on duty, so we are making sure to prioritize adequate rest in between shifts. Additionally, we have updated the discipline matrix to make it clear that officers who need to be held accountable will be held accountable. Interim Chief Huffman has done an excellent job to add much needed clarity to the matrix so both officers and the community have the same understanding and expectations when it comes to MPD discipline.”

“Our officers are tasked with critically important – and often very difficult – work to assist in times of crisis, to protect lives and safety, to keep the peace and to uphold the law,” said Huffman. “They can provide the very best to our community when supported with access to strong wellness and mental health services, policies that support adequate rest and time to recharge, and a disciplinary framework that is fair, clear, and reflects the values of this department. As an organization, we must invest in our people, our processes, and our policies so that we can provide the public safety services our city needs and be a workplace where our employees will flourish and grow strong careers.”

New limitation of hours worked policy

Effective May 22, MPD has a new policy governing how many hours an officer may work in a given week or any given shift. The policy limits the number of hours an officer may work to 74 total hours each week – and the number of consecutive hours worked to 16 total hours in a day. An emphasis on rest and wellness was a key component in building out this new policy which also requires at least 8 consecutive hours off for every 24 hours worked and requires employees have at least one full 24-hour day with no work shifts in any capacity each week.

Read the full policy beginning on page 106

Additional investments in officer wellness

The City is in the process of pursuing mental health services specific to MPD – focusing on officer mental health and well-being. The RFP process is underway to find a vendor to provide these trauma-informed psychological services to MPD officers. The RFP will ask that vendors outline a plan for weekly or bi-weekly group sessions, individual counseling sessions, peer support, family support, and training support.

Additionally, MPD will be hiring a new role for a Health and Wellness Manager. This role and will be responsible for creating and implementing a robust wellness program for MPD staff. The position will be posted to the City’s website this week.

Updated discipline matrix

Effective June 1, MPD officers are accountable to an updated discipline matrix. Interim Chief Huffman led the implementation of this refreshed tool, which was last updated in 2018. The updated matrix reflects a new framework that guides disciplinary decisions in support of a system that is fair, consistent, and transparent. Additionally, the updated matrix reflects both the values of MPD and the expectations of the community for MPD accountability.

The updated matrix recategorizes and clarifies levels of discipline for policy violations dependent upon the facts and circumstances of each case and is responsive to the changing practices in policing. Importantly, the updated matrix emphasizes the evaluation of policy violations considering the harm or risk of harm created by the misconduct. The harm or risk of harm can be to the safety of a community member or officer, to the public or community trust, and to the professional reputation of the department and its relationships. This framework of harm has not been explicitly included in prior versions of the matrix.

Additional new changes to the updated matrix include adding an entire violation section to clearly identify policy violations that warrant termination and explicitly spelling out a range of discipline for each violation level.

The 2022 update to the matrix was developed collaboratively with input from MPD and the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis using research and similar matrices from several other police agencies. The matrix may be revised at any time based upon changing values, and not all MPD policy violations are listed in the discipline matrix – the full MPD policy manual is online. 

Read the full text of the updated discipline matrix.

Original source can be found here.