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State task force releases recommendations to reduce deadly officer-involved shootings

The recommendations follow six months of task force meetings and listening sessions across Minnesota.

ST PAUL, Minn. — A state task force is calling for de-escalation training for all law enforcement agencies in Minnesota and the creation of a specialized BCA unit to investigate officer-involved shootings, as part of a series of recommendations and action steps to reduce the number of police-involved encounters of deadly force in Minnesota.

The recommendations follow six months of meetings and listening sessions by a working group of lawmakers, law enforcement officials, attorneys, community advocates, tribal leaders and academic leaders, led by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and State Commissioner of Public Safety John Harrington.

In a joint press release, Ellison and Harrington said the working group came up with 28 recommendations and 33 action steps, based on five pillars: community healing and engagement; prevention and training; investigations and accountability; policy and legal implications; and officer wellness.

The press release included the following examples of the working group's recommendations:

  • Establish a liaison position in the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) to ensure that families of those involved in deadly force encounters are treated with dignity and respect, kept informed, and referred to services. 
  • Establish a permanent “Peacemaker” office to work on dispute mediation and resolution, including after a deadly force encounter; build community capacity to resolve conflict; promote healing and restoration; and address hate crimes. 
  • Adopt a co-responder model to improve outcomes for people with disabilities or who are in mental-health crisis, and ensure that officers develop skills to recognize and respond appropriately to people with disabilities and refer them to appropriate resources. 
  • Train all law-enforcement agencies in de-escalation skills and tactics to reduce use of force, especially when responding to people in crisis. 
  • Remove budget sunset on and expand law-enforcement training funds, and ensure consistency statewide.
  • Create an independent, specialized unit within the BCA to investigate all officer-involved shootings and uses of force that result in death or severe bodily injury. 
  • Review law and policy on body-worn cameras to ensure transparency and accountability in deadly force encounters; involve community in developing and reviewing policy; evaluate impact by 2022 and fund statewide implementation if proven effective. 
  • Establish a formal, protected, non-disciplinary Sentinel Event Review to review critical incidents and identify systemic issues that need to be addressed to improve outcomes. 
  • Adopt use-of-force standards that make sanctity of life a core organizational value and include requirements for de-escalation; reasonable, necessary, and proportionate use of force; duty to intervene; use of sound tactics; reporting unreasonable use of force (
  • Discuss strategies to increase the role of the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Board in approving, suspending, or revoking officer licenses at request of chief or sheriff. 
  • Establish a data-collection and reporting system that tracks all police-involved deadly force encounters. 
  • Pass carefully crafted privacy protection for protected conversations for peer-support programs for first responders. 
  • Collect, analyze, and publish data about police-community interactions, use of force, and deadly force encounters. 
  • Expand resources, and increase statewide awareness of existing resources, to improve mental health and wellness of first responders and dispatchers.

RELATED: State group to give update on deadly police encounter discussions

“This is just the beginning. Now we’ll get to work with the Legislature and partners in community, law enforcement, the criminal-justice system, and beyond to implement these recommendations and make them work,” Ellison said in a statement.

According to the Attorney General's office, there were 14 community members and one law enforcement officer killed in deadly force police encounters in 2019. There have been more than 100 such incidents over the past five years, with nearly 60-percent of those encounters happening in Greater Minnesota.

RELATED: BCA looking to hire 'family liaison' to help families of officer-involved shootings

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety has made the working group's hearings, agendas and testimony available for viewing online.

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