MINNEAPOLIS — Funding for a key Minneapolis Police Department accountability initiative after the death of George Floyd has fallen through, officials confirmed Thursday, meaning potential delays as the city scrambles to find another source for the money.
Police Chief Medaria Arradondo announced June 10 the department would contract with Benchmark Analytics, a Chicago company, to use its data-driven system to identify problematic behavior by officers so supervisors could take corrective action. Developed by the University of Chicago, it's more advanced than similar systems used by many other departments across the country, as well as a system that Minneapolis tried in 2009 that never really got off the ground.
The nonprofit Minneapolis Foundation was to fund the project for the first year, but CEO R.T. Rybak — a founding member of the Benchmark Analytics board and a former Minneapolis mayor — confirmed Thursday that the foundation has dropped its involvement.
Rybak, who left the Benchmark board last December, said the foundation got involved because Arradondo wanted to move quickly. But he said they backed away "when there began to be some drama around Benchmark." He said the foundation wanted to avoid any harm to its broader work against racial injustice and in support of criminal justice reform, which predates Floyd's death.
Some activists had sharply criticized Rybak. Civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong and Michelle Gross of Communities United Against Police Brutality accused him at a news conference this week of failing to stop police brutality when he was mayor from 2002-2013. Armstrong, Gross and other activists — most of whom support the so-called dismantling of the department — said they didn't trust him or the foundation on police accountability issues.
Gross also questioned why the city wasn't putting the work out for bids.
"It's important not to have any distractions because our role has been and is now more important than ever," Rybak said.
Police spokesman John Elder said the department is trying to find alternative funding. He referred questions about where the money might come from to Mayor Jacob Frey, who said the city prefers "external partners" and said "I believe that we will get there."
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Frey said if the city doesn't find other funders, it will see if the program can be done with existing money.
It's not clear how much money the city needs. Benchmark Analytics CEO Ron Huberman said his company does not publicly discuss what it charges.
Nashville's department, about 1 1/2 times the size of the Minneapolis department, signed a five-year deal with Benchmark in 2018 worth around $455,000.
Huberman said the system combines a department's own data with analytical technology developed by University of Chicago researchers to flag officers who might need coaching, training or other interventions before discipline is warranted. It usually takes three to nine months to implement, he said, and would likely be closer to nine months in Minneapolis due to the size of the department.
Huberman said he didn't have enough information on the officer charged with killing Floyd, Derek Chauvin, to know if the system would have flagged him.
"Rarely does an officer engage in one super-problematic event," Huberman said in an interview. "You almost never see that. When officers are engaged in problematic conduct, it is almost always a pattern of problematic conduct that occurs. Because of that, it becomes a very predictable thing."
