Some Minneapolis council members critical of MPD reaction or inaction to ICE agents
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The Minneapolis police chief spoke to the city council on Wednesday, painting a picture of a department under pressure as federal agents surged into the state this winter.
Chief Brian O’Hara said the department canceled more than 1,000 days off for officers, extended hundreds of shifts and spent an additional $5 million on overtime and other pay. He faced pushback from city council members who questioned why the police department didn’t do more to protect residents from federal agents.
O’Hara said he was mostly pleased with the department’s performance during the federal surge but that some things could have been done better. He said the police department educated officers on immigration policies and made them aware that they should take direction only from police leadership.
“Under the strain, under all of the mixed demands and uncharted territory, I think the members of the Minneapolis Police Department performed exceptionally well,” O’Hara told the council.
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O’Hara outlined major events during the federal surge, including protests after the killings of residents Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents.
He said police shifted their approach early on to ensure they weren’t heading blindly into 911 calls involving federal agents, a change that came after an incident where agents reported they’d been attacked by protesters, which the chief said wasn’t accurate. O’Hara put a supervisor on duty 24 hours a day who gathered information and organized the police response to anything involving federal agents.
“If there was an event where there was legitimately large-scale violence or a situation where a federal officer needed to be rescued, instead of just randomly sending officers to the scene, we would have a supervisor in charge that would be able to get independent information … and to assemble police officers to go in with a plan so they could get in safely and get out as safely as possible,” O’Hara said.
The chief said the vast majority of demonstrators in the city were peaceful, and he thanked citizens who helped to de-escalate tensions after federal actions. O’Hara said the federal actions put additional pressure on police ranks, which they supplemented with officers from nearby departments like St. Paul and the University of Minnesota. For 24 hours after Pretti’s killing, he said, outside departments were responding to all emergency calls in the city.
Minneapolis officers are required to intervene if other law enforcement officers, including federal agents, are using excessive force. However, council member Jason Chavez asked the chief why police didn’t intervene during any actions where residents were teargassed, detained or had property damaged by federal agents.
O’Hara responded that he expected officers to intervene when there’s “egregious” behavior, but that an officer has to have the ability to safely intervene. He said there were no interventions reported.
“I would have expected myself or any officer who did intervene in an egregious use of force situation, despite it being the correct and moral thing to do, I would expect us to be in handcuffs by the end of it,” O’Hara said. “But it didn’t mean that we weren’t prepared or willing to do that.”
Chavez said the police department’s narrative about the surge didn’t align with residents’ experiences.
“We know that our neighbors in particular have been directly impacted, they have witnessed multiple times the cruelty and disregard of public safety by ICE and federal law enforcement in this city,” Chavez said. “This is an occupying force that has literally disregarded the law over our constituents.”
Council Member Jamison Whiting noted that no officers in the United States have been known to intervene with federal immigration agents.
Council Member Aisha Chughtai asked why Minneapolis police backed off when confronted with armed federal agents at a protest of a Minneapolis hotel that was reportedly housing ICE agents.
“You show up to the scene and you see federal agents pointing their weapons at people, and you don’t feel a duty to protect the residents of this community and instead choose to leave the scene?” Chughtai asked the chief.
O’Hara said the supervisor on the scene tried to coordinate with federal agents on crowd control but was rebuffed.
“However we feel about federal law enforcement, they are a lawful government agency,” O’Hara said. “We can not prevent them from enforcing federal law in the city.”
O’Hara said his department hasn’t submitted any cases against federal agents to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, but they have asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for the identity of two agents involved in a possible misdemeanor assault.
The toll of the surge includes two fatal shootings, one non-fatal shooting and 12 vehicle collisions between federal agents and members of the public.
Police also fielded 50,000 emergency calls during the surge and extended 500 shifts. The chief said the department is attempting to get overtime costs in check and get response times back down to previous levels.
