Police training comes into focus for some Minnesota departments
Protests against police brutality across the country are prompting some Minnesota police departments to review their training policies.
The new scrutiny follows grand jury decisions in New York and Missouri not to indict police officers who killed unarmed black men during confrontations. Activists say people of color feel they're targeted by police, and that officers are rarely punished for abuse.
• At Vikings game, protesters decry police brutality
Demonstrators held protests against alleged police violence over the weekend at the Vikings game in Minneapolis and in Superior, Wisconsin.
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"The public needs to see us as more transparent," Roseville Police Chief Rick Mathwig said Monday on the MPR News show The Daily Circuit. "We don't tell people what we do and why we do it, so that part of the policing model needs to be changed."
Mathwig said he was an early supporter of police officer wearing body cameras and that his department was adjusting its use of force policy even before Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson.
"What we're doing now is when officers use force, if there's available media — such as a squad video, or we have a few body cameras that we're testing out now — if that's available, then the supervisor will look at all available media and make sure that the uses of force were legal and justified before signing off on the report," Mathwig said.
Maplewood Police Chief Paul Schnell says his department is among those reviewing their use of force policies.
"One of the things that we are doing here is just looking at making sure that we train on the full continuum and that includes even the verbal response, verbal engagement de-escalation techniques, as opposed to just hands on tactics and deadly force," he said.
Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association Executive Director Andy Skoogman said he's heard similar talk from departments around the state.
Departments continually examine their use of force polices and are looking now at how officers can slow down situations before they can reach a point where force is used, he said.
"There's no doubt that in light of the events that occurred in Ferguson and New York City, we're taking a look at those policies and looking at ways in which we can de-escalate situations and prevent officers from getting into those situations in the first place," he said.