The first of several biannual progress reports on Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) reform efforts mandated by a settlement agreement with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights was released on Monday.

The city entered into that court-ordered agreement in 2023 and, a year later, hired Effective Law Enforcement For All (ELEFA) as the required independent monitor to track progress and publish a review every six months.

The first “Independent Evaluator Progress Review Report” covered the first six months after ELEFA was brought on, which was March through September of 2024.

By beginning to hold public meetings, launching an independent evaluator website and publishing this inaugural semi-annual review, the City of Minneapolis checked a few police reform goals set for year one off the list.

ELEFA also credited the city for investigating hundreds of backlogged police misconduct allegations.

“The bottom line, there is still a backlog, but we are making progress,” Civil Rights Department Director Michelle Phillips said in a press conference announcing the release of the report.

“Dozens and dozens of policies have been worked on over the course of the last year,” MPD Chief Brian O’Hara added.

MPD also made gains in officer wellness supports and new training requirements, including crisis intervention and engaging with minors, according to the report.

“Since this is our first report, we will not be compliant in many things right now. It’s because the work is ongoing, and again, those building blocks are being built progressively,” said City Attorney Kristyn Anderson.

A crucial gap in the first review centered around officer use-of-force, including a backlog of more than 1,100 cases. More than 400 were considered “…more significant instances of force.”

“So I can’t say with certainty that the backlog will be cleared by the deadline, which is March 17, but I feel very, very confident that if not cleared, we will have made substantial progress,” Chief O’Hara said in response.

O’Hara said MPD has chipped away at more of the backlog since September by recently training more staff and hiring an independent law firm to help.

According to ELEFA, the Force Investigations Team and MPD as a whole “…lacked sufficient staffing to complete some of the major tasks the Agreement requires.”

“Yes, it’s not optimally staffed. And if we do have a federal consent decree, we will be required to staff it further,” O’Hara said.

“So yes, there are concerns there that we won’t be able to get everything completed, but I believe the monitor does agree that we want to make sure that we get this right instead of just getting it done by March 17.”

As the chief mentioned, there is a similar list of federally mandated reforms in a consent decree. That is not yet enforced, as it’s still under review by a federal judge in Minneapolis.

CLICK HERE to read the ELEFA report. To provide comments or feedback, email outreach@elefamn.org, the report said.