Bill calls for outside investigations of officer-involved killings

A bipartisan bill introduced at the Capitol would bar Minnesota police agencies from investigating their own officers involved in duty-related deaths.

The bill would require two outside investigators for shootings, crashes and other deaths linked to a peace officer's enforcement work, either on or off duty.

St. Louis Park DFLer Ron Latz is the sponsor in the Senate. He says most departments in Minnesota already handle officer-involved deaths in a similar way.

"There's an appearance that an agency investigating itself will lead to results that don't have the level of confidence by members of the public or by other members of the law enforcement community," he said.

The state's biggest departments, in Minneapolis and St. Paul, have traditionally handled their own officer-involved death investigations.

The bill is sponsored by Republican Tony Cornish in the House, a retired police officer and chair of the Public Safety committee there. It's modeled on a similar measure passed in Wisconsin last year. It does not yet have a hearing at the Capitol.