MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Activists for police reform in Duluth, Minnesota are calling on the city to make changes after an analysis of data showed that police use force on and arrest minorities at a disproportionate rate compared to white people.
Half of people involved in use-of-force incidents in 2019 were people of color, even though those groups made up 10% of the city’s population, according to Duluth Police Department data. The Star Tribune reports the group calling for reform, LEAN Duluth, also pointed to racial disparities in arrest data from the last three years. The group wants the police department to conduct a racial bias audit, freeze future budget increases and establish an office focused on preventing violence.
Classie Dudley, president of the Duluth branch of the NAACP, said at a news conference Friday that “racially biased policing against Black, Indigenous and other people of color” has occurred for years.
The campaign comes amid a global effort to address racial injustice after George Floyd died in Minneapolis last year when a white police officer pressed his knee to Floyd’s kneck for about nine minutes.
Duluth Mayor Emily Larson said she “recognizes that there’s work that we need to do.”
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