Minnesota to launch working group on police shootings

National Politics

Minnesota to launch working group on police shootings

The Associated Press

July 22, 2019 06:30 AM

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ST. PAUL, Minn.

Minnesota’s top law enforcement officials are launching a working group and public hearings on police-involved shootings.

Attorney General Keith Ellison and Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington say the group will begin work later this summer. The move comes as police departments and the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension have often come under heavy criticism for their handling of such shootings.

Video is frequently withheld from officer-involved shootings for months while an investigation is done. And officers are rarely charged.

The BCA was sharply criticized for its investigation of the 2017 fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond by a Minneapolis police officer, with Damond’s father accusing the agency of either resisting a real investigation or being incompetent. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman also criticized the agency’s early work on the case.

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