As they stopped fewer people, they found and seized fewer illegal guns. Officers stopped 85 percent fewer cars for traffic violations. In the year after FloydР’Т‘s death on May 25, 2020, the number of people approached on the street by officers who considered them suspicious dropped by 76 percent, Reuters found after analyzing more than 2.2 million police dispatches in the city. 'Nobody in the job or working on the job can blame those officers for being less aggressive.' 'There isn't a huge appetite for aggressive police work out there, and the risk/reward, certainly, we're there and we're sworn to protect and serve, but you also have to protect yourself and your family,' said Scott Gerlicher, a Minneapolis police commander who retired this year.

Some in the city, including police officers themselves, say the men and women in blue stepped back after Floyd's death for fear that any encounter could become the next flashpoint. They approached fewer people they considered suspicious and noticed fewer people who were intoxicated, fighting or involved with drugs, records show. In the meantime, an examination by Reuters found, Minneapolis' police officers imposed abrupt changes of their own, adopting what amounts to a hands-off approach to everyday lawbreaking in a city where killings have surged to a level not seen in decades.Р”Р„ group of police officers walks along an empty street in downtown Minneapolis last weekР”Р„lmost immediately after FloydР’Т‘s death, Reuters found, police officers all but stopped making traffic stops. The judge has not yet issued a decision on the question. On Monday, a judge heard argumentsР’В that the ballot language is too vague and misleading. Officials here floated attempts to overhaul, shrink or even abolish the city's besieged police force, with early voting set to start Friday on a ballot initiative to replace the police with a nebulous department of public safety. In the months that followed Floyd's death last May, few cities wrestled more with the question of what the future of American law enforcement should be than Minneapolis. 'They're just going to let everybody kill themselves.' Some residents now call the city a 'gangster's paradise'.Р”В®arthman and others complain that even with shootings soaring, the police are frequently nowhere to be seen. With fewer police stops, cops have fewer chances to recover illegal drugs and guns, and violent crime has soared, with the murder rate in Minneapolis on pace to hit a 20-year high. In April, the average police response time to priority 911 calls was 40 percent longer than it had been a year earlier, Reuters found.

One officer said that some Minneapolis cops even deliberately take a longer route than necessary to respond to 911 calls, in the hope that whatever the emergency is, it will be resolved by the time they arrive. In the year following Floyd's death, traffic stops in Minneapolis plunged 74 percent, patrols of known problem areas were down 76 percent, and stops of suspicious people plunged 75 percent, according to a Reuters investigation.Р”В¬onfidential police sources said that part of the slowdown was due to a staffing shortage amid an exodus from the department, but that much of the reduction in policing was due to a fear of being caught up in an incident that could go viral in a climate of anti-cop sentiment. Proactive policing in Minneapolis plunged dramatically following the murder of George Floyd last year, even as violent crime soared, a new analysis reveals as the city prepares to vote on a ballot initiative to abolish the police department.

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