Medaria Arradondo, who became Minneapolis' first Black police chief in 2017 and guided the Police Department through the worst crisis of its 154-year history, announced his retirement Monday.

"I have made the decision that I will not be accepting a new term as chief of the Minneapolis Police Department," Arradondo, 54, said during a news conference. "After 32 years of service 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 and I am confident that the MPD has the leadership in place to advance this critically important work that lies ahead of us."

With Monday's announcement, Arradondo ends a three-decade career in public service, during which he gained a reputation as a personable leader who relied heavily on community input as he tried to transform a police department with a long history of racism and disproportionate use of force against Black people.

But like his predecessor, his tenure will likely be overshadowed by a police killing of an unarmed civilian that brought the department international notoriety. In Arradondo's case, it was the murder of George Floyd during an arrest outside a convenience store in May 2020, which prompted weeks of protests, the burning of a police precinct and a campaign to replace the MPD with a new public safety agency.

Arrandondo's public opposition to the change prompted an ethics complaint against him, but it likely contributed to voters' decisive rejection of that amendment. Still, the measure's defeat hasn't quieted questions about the direction of the embattled department.