Thousands of complaints do little to change police ways
In nearly two decades with the Minneapolis Police Department, Derek Chauvin faced at least 17 misconduct complaints, none of which derailed his career.
Over the years, civilian review boards came and went, and a federal review recommended that the troubled department improve its system for flagging problematic officers.
All the while, Chauvin tussled with a man before firing two shots, critically wounding him. He was admonished for using derogatory language and a demeaning tone with the public. He was named in a brutality lawsuit. But he received no discipline other than two letters of reprimand.
It was not until Chauvin, 44, was seen in a video with his left knee pinned to the neck of a black man, prone for nearly nine minutes and pleading for relief, that the officer, who is white, was suspended, fired and then, on Friday, charged with murder.
His case is not unusual. Critics say the department, despite its long history of accusations of abuse, never fully put in place federal recommendations to overhaul the way in which it tracks complaints and punishes officers — with just a handful over the years facing termination or severe punishment.
Even as outrage has mounted over deaths at the hands of the police, it remains notoriously difficult in the United States to hold officers accountable, in part because of the political clout of police unions, the reluctance of investigators, prosecutors and juries to second-guess an officer’s splitsecond decision and the wide latitude the law gives police officers to use force.
Police departments themselves have often resisted civilian review or dragged their feet when it comes to overhauling officer disciplinary practices. And even change-oriented police chiefs in cities such as Baltimore and Philadelphia — which over the last few years have been the sites of highprofile deaths of black men by white officers — have struggled to punish or remove bad actors.
In Minneapolis, authorities took quick action against Chauvin and three other officers involved in Floyd’s death, firing them one day after a graphic video emerged of the encounter. But that does not mean the officers are gone for good. Public employees can appeal their dismissals; in scores of such cases, the officers often win.
Chauvin was one of four officers who responded to a call on Memorial Day that a man had tried buying cigarettes with a fake $20 bill. The other officers, identified by authorities as Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng, also were fired and remain under investigation. The county attorney said he expected to bring charges but offered no further details.
Neither Lane nor Kueng had misconduct complaints filed against them, according to the department. But Thao faced six in his career and was the subject of a lawsuit that claimed he and another officer punched, kicked and kneed an African American man, leaving the man with broken teeth and bruises.
The head of the police union, Lt. Bob Kroll, is himself the subject of at least 29 complaints. Three resulted in discipline, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported in 2015. Kroll was accused of using excessive force and racial slurs, in a case that was dismissed, and was named in a racial discrimination lawsuit brought in 2007 by several officers, including the man who is now the police chief.
Teresa Nelson, legal director for the ACLU of Minnesota, said attempts by the city’s police leaders to reform the department’s culture have been undermined by Kroll.
She said that in a 2015 meeting after a fatal police shooting, Kroll told her that he views community complaints like fouls in basketball. “He told me, ‘If you’re not getting any fouls, you’re not working hard enough,’ ” she said.