Police officer complaint review process terms

List of terms and definitions

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) for City employees or if 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 are 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 right to MPD for possible non-disciplinary corrective action. We do not then go 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:

Your complaint is about a Category A violation, as found in MPD’s Discipline Matrix.
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 sent to MPD for review, MPD decides if they take corrective action and send the decision back to OPCR.

Grievance

When the Chief decides to discipline an officer, sometimes the officer or the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis (POFM) do not agree with the decision.

They can file a grievance stating they do not agree with any of the following:

Type of discipline
Category of discipline
Amount of discipline
Ways the discipline can be served
Reasons for the discipline

A grievance is optional and is started by the POFM.

Arbitration

Arbitration is the third step in the grievance process. It may happen if the POFM and the Chief’s Office do not agree during step two of the grievance process.

Arbitration is optional and started by the POFM.

A neutral third party or arbitrator hears the matter and makes a written decision.

More related terms

The Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis (POFM) - This is the bargaining unit for MPD officers.

Definitions

Sustained - The investigation was unable to determine by a preponderance of the evidence whether the alleged misconduct occurred.

Not sustained - The investigation showed clear and convincing evidence that the alleged conduct did not occur or did not involve the accused officer.

Unfounded - The investigation showed clear and convincing evidence that the alleged conduct did not occur or did not involve the accused officer.

Exonerated - The investigation determined by a preponderance of the evidence that the alleged conduct occurred but did not violate policy.

If an officer is exonerated, the Chief can ask for examination of the policy to see if it needs to be changed. This is called “Policy failure.”

More related terms

Preponderance of the evidence standard - It is more likely than not that the misconduct happened.
Clear and convincing evidence standard - It is highly likely that the misconduct happened. This standard is higher than the preponderance of the evidence standard.