And three years after Mr. Floyd’s murder, public safety issues remain raw and unresolved.
As city leaders debated the fate of the Police Department, officers left the department, many walking away with medical disability payments after seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. As of early June, the Minneapolis Police Department had 585 officers, down from 912 in 2019.
As police ranks thinned out, violent crime soared. Gang violence, once a modest problem in Minneapolis, became such a challenge that federal prosecutors charged 45 people suspected of being gang members in a pair of racketeering indictments in May, a first in the city.
Many residents have given up on the local public transportation system, where some stations increasingly have become gathering points for people who openly smoke fentanyl and other drugs. The number of car thefts and carjackings skyrocketed. As of early June, more than 4,100 vehicles had been stolen in the city this year, nearly twice as many as during the same period last year.