Systematic abuses and discrimination are attributed to the Minneapolis police department, a report announced by the Department of Justice on Friday, after a two-year investigation into the death of George Floyd.

Minneapolis police have continued to use excessive force and discriminate racially even after the killing of African-American George Floyd by a police officer, according to an official report released today by the Department of Justice.

The security forces of this northern US city “often use excessive force,” even lethal, and “unlawfully discriminate against blacks and Amerindians,” the department says in this shocking report.

With input from police and city leadership, significant changes have been implemented, but “there’s still a lot of work to be done,” Justice Minister Merrick Garland said in a press conference outlining the government’s 28 recommendations.

Local authorities and the ministry will negotiate an agreement on the reforms to be adopted, and their implementation will be overseen by a federal judge.

On May 25, 2020, a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, choked 45-year-old African-American George Floyd after kneeling on his neck for 9 minutes. Footage of Floyd’s death, captured on video by a passerby, has sparked outrage and massive protests across the US. About a year later, the Justice Department launched a formal investigation into whether, beyond isolated acts, there was systematic use of force by law enforcement in this city of 425,000.

For two years, investigators examined various incidents that occurred from 2016 to August 2022, studied footage from police cameras and heard from thousands of witnesses.

“Many police officers do their difficult job with professionalism, courage and respect. However, our investigation concluded that systemic problems made what happened to George Floyd possible,” they write in their introduction.

“For years, the Minneapolis police have used dangerous techniques and weapons against people who have committed minor crimes or no crimes at all (…) They patrol neighborhoods according to the racial makeup of their population (…) with volunteer cowboys” who go into the neighborhoods of African-Americans, the researchers complain.

Police use force, without reason, against protesters and journalists or when they intervene in cases involving people with psychiatric problems.