Thursday, May 25 marks three years since George Floyd was murdered in police custody by former Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin. Floyd’s death ignited nationwide protests and cries for change in how Black and minority communities are policed in the U.S. 

Chauvin now sits in prison for his crime, but has anything really changed in the way police operate in the country?

As of May 25, 2023, Black people in the U.S. are 2.9 times more likely to be killed by police than white people, according to MappingPoliceViolence.org

Some states are seeing more police officers being held legally accountable for deaths of unarmed people in their custody.Former Minneapolis police officer Kim Potter was convicted of manslaughter for killing Daunte Wright in 2021. The five police officers involved in the 2023 beating death of unarmed Black motorist Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee were fired and charged in his death.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz proclaimed Thursday, May 25 to be “George Floyd Remembrance Day” in the state.“True justice for George Floyd will come only through real, systemic change to prevent acts like this from happening again. We must continue to do everything in our power to come together to deconstruct and undo generations of systemic racism in our state.” Walz said.

Derek Chauvin, the white officer convicted of second-degree murder for killing George Floyd by cutting off his air supply, is serving his prison sentence of 22 ½ years.

Calls for defunding the police in exchange for better social and mental health programs have largely gone unheeded around the country.

The Minneapolis Police Department saw its 2023 budget go up to $205 million, the highest it has ever been.

Limitations to no-knock warrants were issued in Minneapolis after Floyd’s death, but these did not stop a city SWAT team from entering a Minneapolis apartment unannounced and fatally shooting 22-year-old Amir Locke on his couch in 2022. No charges were filed against those officers.

Activists and protesters, infuriated by the spate of police killings of unarmed Black people in 2020, took to the streets demanding change.  In 2023, many of those protesters in at least 19 U.S. cities will be compensated for injuries sustained from police use of force, the Guardian reports.

After Floyd’s death, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights found that the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) had violated the Minnesota Human Rights Act and used discriminatory policing. 

The U.S. Justice Department has an ongoing investigation into the MPD.

Minneapolis put limitations on traffic stops, prohibiting officers from stopping motorists for expired plates or licenses, hanging air fresheners or other pretextual reasons, because these stops disproportionately involve Black motorists.

Federally, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act which would have banned chokeholds and no-knock warrants in the U.S. fell flat in the Senate after passing in the House.  

The legislation has not been revived.President Biden signed an executive order banning federal officers from using chokeholds and no-knock warrants, but those restrictions do not apply to city and state officers.

On Thursday, May 25, 2023, U.S. President Biden called for Congress to act to bring “real and lasting change at the state and local levels.”

“You have to have the faith that it will happen, because it didn’t happen overnight for Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X. It didn’t happen overnight for Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson,” Terrence Floyd, brother of George Floyd said Thursday about social change. “You can’t expect it to happen overnight for us, but it will happen.”

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