We receive your complaint in person, online, by mail, or by phone.
Within 3 days of receiving your complaint
We file your complaint and assign it a case number.
Within 7 days of receiving your complaint
We notify you of your case number by email or mail. If you did not provide any contact information, we are not able to send your case number.
Your case number is helpful if you want to contact us about your complaint in the future. You can also enter your case number into our Officer Complaint Status Lookup Dashboard.
Within 30 days of receiving your complaint
We review your complaint and gather evidence. We may contact you during this step if we need more information. If we see other possible policy violations, we add them to the case for consideration.
Within 30 days of receiving your complaint
We decide how to route the case. We do one of the following:
For cases we refer or dismiss, our involvement ends with this step. We only move forward with step 4 for cases we decide to investigate. For cases we send to MPD for review, MPD decides whether to take non-disciplinary corrective action and sends the decision back to us.
Learn more about referral, dismissal, and non-disciplinary corrective action
Within 180 days of us filing your complaint
We complete an investigation and write a summary report of the evidence.
An investigation may include:
If the investigator needs more than 180 days, they must ask the OPCR director for an extension. If approved, the OPCR director decides on a new deadline.
Within 15 days of completing the report
The OPCR director reviews the case file and does one of the following:
Approves the report and forwards the case file for panel review
Asks for more investigation and gives the investigator a new deadline
If the OPCR director re-routes the case, our involvement ends with this step. We only complete step 6 for cases we forward for panel review.
Learn more about referral, dismissal, and non-disciplinary corrective action
Within 30 days of the OPCR director approving the report
A review panel of 3 civilians and 2 members of MPD leadership meet to review and discuss the case file.
Learn how we select review panels
Within 3 business days of the panel’s meeting
The panelists make recommendations about whether the involved officer(s) violated MPD policy and procedure. If yes, they also recommend discipline for the officer(s). If the panelists cannot make a decision, they can ask us for further investigation.
Within 7 days of the review panel's recommendations
The OPCR director sends the case file and recommendations to MPD’s Chief of Police.
Within 15 days of receiving the case file and review panel’s recommendations
The Chief can ask us for further investigation if needed to make their decision.
Within 30 days of receiving the case file and review panel’s recommendations
The Chief reviews the information and makes a decision about the case. The Chief does one of the following:
If the Chief decides to discipline the involved officer(s), this information is not available to the public until all grievance and/or arbitration processes have ended.
Learn more about dismissal and non-disciplinary corrective action
Referral
If your complaint is not appropriate for us to investigate, we can send it to the correct agency.
We will refer your complaint to:
An outside agency if the involved officer(s) may work for that agency
MPD's Internal Affairs Division (IAD) if you are a City employee or your complaint is about a civilian/non-sworn MPD employee
Human Resources if your complaint involves a personnel matter
Other agencies as needed
Dismissal
Cases can be dismissed for many reasons and at different steps in the process.
We may dismiss your case because your complaint:
Does not involve a current MPD officer
Does not describe a violation of MPD policy and procedure
Is not supported by the available evidence
Is a duplicate of another complaint
Non-disciplinary corrective action
We send certain cases to MPD for possible non-disciplinary corrective action instead of going through the entire process. This possible action can include coaching and training the involved officer(s).
We only send cases that meet the following criteria:
1) Your complaint is about a Category A violation, as found in MPD’s Discipline Matrix.
2) The involved officer(s) have not violated the same policy or a similar one in the last year.
Even if your complaint meets these criteria, we are not required to send the case to MPD. If we do not send the case to MPD, we complete an investigation.
For cases we send to MPD for review, MPD decides whether to take non-disciplinary corrective action and sends the decision back to us.
Complaint process manual
Learn more about the police misconduct complaint process.
MPD complaint review process
MPD's Internal Affairs Division (IAD) handles complaints submitted by City employees and complaints about civilian/non-sworn MPD employees. For IAD's complaint review process, contact IAD.
Court-enforceable settlement agreement
Much of the complaint review process is a result of an agreement between the City and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.
Per the agreement, all above timelines are in calendar days unless stated otherwise.
Carolina Amini
Interim Director
Address
City HallOffice hours
8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Monday – Friday
