It’s coming to an end.
Minneapolis’ first Black police chief, Medaria Arradondo, served his last day as the police chief on Jan. 15 after announcing last month that he would retire, according to NBC News.
While with the department for the past 30 years, he started as a patrol officer in 1989, then became an inspector of the first precinct of Minneapolis in 2013.
In 2017, in the wake of controversy, Arradondo was named to take over as chief of the department after his predecessor was fired for how she handled the fatal police shooting of unarmed Justine Ruszczyk Damond, who called 911 to report that she thought she heard a sexual assault happening behind her home, according to NBC News.
Arradondo was chief of police through the George Floyd protests of 2020 and throughout the trial of Derek Chauvin in 2021, the former Minneapolis officer who was found guilty of second-degree murder in the killing of Floyd.
But, when he announced his retirement last month he noted that Floyd’s death, the protests that followed and Chauvin’s trial did not affect his decision to retire.
From NBC News:
“I believe that now is the right time to allow for new leadership, new perspective, new focus and new hope to lead the department forward in collaboration with our communities,” he said last month when he announced his retirement. “I am confident that the MPD has the leadership in place to advance this critically important work that lies ahead of us.”
Arradondo was unavailable for comment on his last day in office. An official for the department said he wanted to go out quietly.
In proclaiming Saturday as Medaria Arradondo Day, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the chief has “embodied decency, community, and courage in his historic tenure” and “has been unabashed in his commitment to truth, justice and transparency.”
I wonder if social activists who advocated to defund the police agree with that statement as much as the mayor of Minneapolis does.
The current interim Chief is Amelia Huffman, according to the city of Minneapolis website.