The independent monitor overseeing sweeping court-ordered police reform at the Minneapolis Police Department released its second progress report on Tuesday.

It’s been a year since the city hired the organization Effective Law Enforcement for All, or ELEFA, as the required watchdog under a settlement agreement with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.

The second biannual report covered the period between Oct. 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025. 

RELATED: Independent monitor releases inaugural progress report on mandated Minneapolis police reforms

“Five years ago, the world watched as the murder of George Floyd ignited the movement for change,” said Minneapolis Deputy Commissioner of Community Safety Jared Jeffries, beginning a news conference with Police Chief Brian O’Hara and Civil Rights Department Director Michelle Phillips on Tuesday. The news conference can be viewed in the media player below:

The roughly 50-page report showed MPD has overhauled use-of-force policies and brought its backlog of use-of-force cases under review down from more than 1,100 to about 400 in the last 6 months.

“To that end, one of the important highlights of this recent report is the Office of Police Conduct Review is now fully staffed for the first time in approximately 10 years,” Phillips said.

The report also highlighted lingering challenges at MPD, including apparent resistance and skepticism from officers. At one point in the report, ELEFA noted a “serious issue” during crisis intervention training where officers were “…challenging the curriculum… and complained about IE {independent evaluator} and MDHR observing the class.”

When asked, O’Hara said the specific incident noted above “has been addressed already,” stressing that the training was not conducted in Minneapolis or by MPD.

“The long-term plan is, as the monitor has recommended in the report, to have a member of the MPD as a part of co-training that instruction. And I think that’s an easy way to address it,” O’Hara continued.

“I think it’s important to keep in mind that while we continue to ask them to do more and more, there’s a whole lot of uncertainty with the reform process as we go forward. I think from a cop’s perspective, they are worried about, ‘What does this mean for me?'” the Chief said, when asked how he planned to address concerns among rank-and-file officers more broadly. “But I think, ultimately, I am impressed with the level of buy-in that we have gotten thus far with all things considered. And I’m confident that as we continue to invest in the officers’ training, as we continue to make more investments in officers’ health and wellness, and as they see we are looking to fix problems… I think then that’s, ultimately, when we will continue to get more and more buyback.”

The biannual report also mentioned 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reporting, which found MPD stopped publicly sharing some “key information” about recent use-of-force incidents on its online dashboard. In response, ELEFA requested MPD consider re-publishing those data points online, including information like whether someone was injured as a result of force.

O’Hara said MPD was working on reinstating that data as of this report.

Rebecca Lucero, the Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, sent ELEFA the following letter regarding the latest progress report: