Assistant Dean of Students Jay Wong Cited in DOJ Report about its Investigation into the City of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department

Last Friday, United States Attorney General Merrick Garland visited Minneapolis in an historic visit to reveal the findings from an investigation conducted by the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and United States Attorney’s Office District of Minnesota Civil Division into the conduct of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD). The investigation was initiated in April 2021 after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police officer Derrick Chauvin. 

The Star Tribune reports: "The 89-page report, released Friday, caps an investigation launched in April 2021. It outlined four core findings: The department uses excessive force, including unjustified deadly force; it unlawfully discriminates against Black and Native American people; it violates citizens' free speech rights; and officers discriminate against people with behavioral health disabilities when responding to calls, at times causing trauma or death.

'The patterns and practices of conduct the Justice Department observed during our investigation are deeply disturbing,' U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference in Minneapolis. "They erode the community's trust in law enforcement. And they made what happened to George Floyd possible.' The blistering report marks the start of a new post-Floyd chapter that will likely span years, during which the city will have to make changes while under federal court scrutiny."

Contributing to the overall findings in the report was a 2021 presentation by Minnesota Law's Assistant Dean of Students Jay Wong, then a Hennepin County Public Defender, on racial disparities in MPD traffic stops and searches. Wong's presentation was cited on page 42 of the report, footnote 52. The report says: "Over the last decade, multiple reports have identified racial disparities in MPD’s data on stops, searches, and uses of force similar to those we identify in this report—including, for example, the 2018 Hennepin County Public Defender report described above on stops and searches (see page 36), a 2021 presentation by a Hennepin County public defender on 2020 stops and searches (showing that Black drivers were more likely to be searched, but also more likely to be let go following a search because nothing was found), and a 2015 ACLU report analyzing data from 2012 to 2014 on low level arrests (showing Black and Native American people were more likely than white people to be arrested for low-level offenses)."

52 See, e.g., Jay Wong, A Look at Racial Disparities in MPD Traffic Stops and Searches in 2020 (Apr. 22, 2021), https://lims.minneapolismn.gov/download/Agenda/1960/PCOC%20Traffic%20Stop%20Presentation.pdf/55573/2396/PCOC%20Traffic%20Stop%20Presentation.