Crime & Safety

"Treat" Bigotry Early in Problem Cops, Says Hodges

Council Member Betsy Hodges follows colleague Don Samuels in calling for change in the Minneapolis Police Department.

After a rapid-fire succession of recent scandals where white Minneapolis police were caught denigrating minorities and their own chief Ward 13 City Council Member and mayoral candidate Betsy Hodges declared on Tuesday that she'd work to clean up the department if elected.

Hodges' fellow council member and mayoral candidate Don Samuels (Ward 2) previously called for the resignation of two Minneapolis cops caught spewing insults at Chief Janée Harteau and the city's black and LGBT minorities. The two officers and others like them were "bad apples," he said, that "must go" in order to "draw boundaries."

“Minneapolis police officers serve with integrity and courage every day and I salute them. However, the bigotry and misconduct of a few officers unfairly casts doubt on the entire force," Hodges said in a statement posted on her website following Tuesday morning's press conference.

Hodges offered an eight-point plan to reform the department that was short on specific proposals, but broadly outlined an approach that relied on 

  • Set the expectation from day one that we will not tolerate racist speech and actions on the force;
  • Support the Chief’s work to enforce that expectation and build community trust;
  • Continue to build a department that looks like our city, by partnering with Minneapolis schools and community organizations to actively recruit a diverse pool of police recruits;
  • Make sure that the criteria that we use to hire new officers and form cadet classes reflect our community’s deeply-held values;
  • Improve the Police Department’s early-warning systems to identify and help officers treat problems before they turn into misconduct;
  • Strengthen the City’s ability to track and punish misbehavior and proven patterns of misconduct, including by negotiating changes to the contract with the Police Federation that will make it easier to enact appropriate discipline swiftly;
  • Improve citizens’ and police officers’ ability to file complaints about misconduct without reprisal; and
  • Empower staff in my office to work with the police and the community to increase positive relationships and root out systemic problems.
In the wake of recent discipline incidents and shootings, police chief Harteau told the Star Tribune that the police department's training regimen would be reexamined.


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