Residents seek role in federal probe into Minneapolis police

MINNEAPOLIS >> Terrance Jackson remembers driving down Lake Street in 2002 when he saw police arresting his cousin for driving with an invalid license. When he pulled over and offered to take his cousin’s car home to keep it from being towed, things went badly.

One officer grabbed his hand and bent it back “to try to get me to react,” Jackson said. When his shoe came off as he was being restrained, another officer threw it across the parking lot.

Jackson, 63, is one of more than a thousand people who have recounted their run-ins with Minneapolis police to activist groups that plan to share their stories with U.S. Justice Department officials conducting a civil rights investigation into the police force. The effort is aimed at making sure community members have a say in the probe launched the day after former officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd.

Investigators are looking into whether Minneapolis police have shown a “pattern or practice” of policing that is unlawful or unconstitutional. They are also examining the police department’s use of force, including against protesters, its treatment of people suffering from behavioral health issues, its systems of accountability and whether officers have engaged in discriminatory policing.

The inquiry could lead to a consent decree under which the department would be legally required to make certain changes.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the civil rights probe’s progress or say how much weight investigators might place on the civilian accounts that groups provide them, because the probe is ongoing.

But a former Justice Department official, Christy Lopez, said such accounts can help steer investigations. And those helping gather the civilian accounts say they think the stories will make it hard for investigators to ignore the abuse.

“It’s one thing to see things in a document. It’s another thing for someone to tell you, ‘This is what happened to me,’ or ‘This is what the police did to me,’” said Michelle Gross, a member of one of the groups, Communities United Against Police Brutality.

“That kind of information puts a face to the problem and it also shows the pattern,” she said.