The eruption of Black Lives Matter protests against police violence in 2014 spurred a wave of police reform across the country. One of the places to embrace this reform was Minneapolis, Minnesota, a city long known for its liberal politics. Yet in May 2020, four of its officers murdered George Floyd. Fiery protests followed, making the city a national emblem for the failures of police reform. In response, members of the Minneapolis City Council pledged to “end” the Minneapolis Police Department. Yet the politics of transforming policing were more complex than they first appeared. The Minneapolis Reckoning shows how the dualized meaning of the police—as both the promise of state protection and the threat of state violence—creates the complex politics of policing that thwart change and reinforce racial inequities. In The Minneapolis Reckoning, Michelle Phelps describes how Minneapolis seemingly arrived at the brink of police abolition and the tangible ways in which public safety has changed since then. Her account of the city’s struggles over what constitutes real accountability, justice, and safety offers a vivid picture of the possibilities and limits of challenging police power.