Minneapolis to restructure processing of police department data requests

The city of Minneapolis is restructuring the process for handling Minneapolis Police Department data requests.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and City Council Vice President Linea Palmisano are leading the restructuring effort, according to the city, with a goal of completing the changes later this year.

The city says police data requests have been handled by MPD’s Records and Information Unit (RIU) but they will soon be initially processed by a team from the Office of the City Clerk. Subsequently, five full-time RIU employees are being moved to the clerk’s office to handle the increased volume of data requests.

“Accessibility and responsiveness are the City’s top priorities when it comes to managing public data,” Frey said in a statement. “Amid increased interest and higher demand, this move marks the beginning of our shared longer-term work to streamline and centralize important local government services. This is good news for good governance, and we applaud our internal staff team for their commitment to making this transition a priority.”

The city also shifted responsibility and personnel in 2020 when it required the clerk’s office to review and redact police data while leaving all other aspects of data requests to MPD.

The latest changes won’t affect how the public requests data from the city.