COMMENTARY: WHEN POLICE WORK GOES FATALLY WRONG

PRESTON, MINN. -- Last November, two innocent young men were killed after
being broadsided by a Minneapolis police car. Since then four more people
in the metro area have been killed directly or indirectly as a result of
police actions. I am sickened with grief for those killed and their
families, and I have the deepest concern for the officers involved.

Since that incident, the Star Tribune has reported that state and federal
agencies keep few records on how often police accidentally kill. My mind
keeps running back over similar incidents in the past, and I'm alarmed.
Here is a sample from a few scattered files I have kept:

* Two children and a 58-year-old woman killed by State Patrol car speeding
through intersection without stopping. (No emergency or chase involved.)

* A 19-year-old girl killed when hit by police car in a cornfield.

* State Patrol car runs red light, collides with pickup. Driver of pickup
injured.

* Two unarmed 13-year-old boys killed by police shotgun blast.

* Mentally ill man killed near park -- shot three times by police officers.

* A 7-year-old killed by suspected shoplifter's vehicle during police chase.

Incidents like these are not unique to Minnesota. They are happening all
over the United States. Someone needs to ask why, and something needs to be
done about it.

* In Iowa City, Iowa, a young, unarmed businessman talking on the phone,
with the light on, is shot and killed in his own business by police
officers. They thought he might be a burglar.

* Joseph D. McNamara, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at
Stanford and former chief of police for San Jose, Calif., believes much of
the problem has to do with the war on drugs. Police officers believe they
are in a war. McNamara cites the following:

* An innocent 75-year-old minister died of a heart attack struggling with
Boston cops who were mistakenly arresting him because an informant had
given them the wrong address.

* A rancher was killed by a California SWAT team serving a search warrant
in the mistaken belief that he was growing marijuana.

Economist Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize laureate, has estimated that as
many as 10,000 homicides a year can be attributed to the drug war.

Question The Training

Being critical of police procedures is not popular with the public or
police, but we need to take a comprehensive look at what's happening.

In February 1991, I felt as I do now -- that someone had to speak out.
Then, too, there had been a flurry of questionable police actions that
injured or took the lives of an alarming number of unfortunate citizens in
Minnesota. I appeared as a concerned citizen before the state Senate
Judiciary Committee on crime. My intent was to apprise the Legislature of
the potential danger and open discussion on suggested corrective measures.

One suggestion was to look into the type of training Minnesota police
officers receive -- to see if the training might be part of the problem. I
think some committee members looked upon me as some kind of a flake. It's
not at all pleasant being one of the lone voices in the wilderness. Several
weeks after my testimony, however, the Rodney King situation came to light,
and many of the senators gave me a call asking if this was the type of
thing I was talking about.

More training seems to be the universal solution regarding police
misconduct, notwithstanding that the Los Angeles police were already some
of the most highly trained in the nation. Shouldn't we look to the
training, I asked at the time, as potentially part of the problem?

I served 11 years as a county sheriff and deputy sheriff in Minnesota,
nearly eight years as assistant commissioner of the Minnesota Department of
Public Safety, a term on the Minnesota Peace Officer Standards and Training
Board and nine years in the Minnesota House of Representatives. I have the
greatest understanding and respect for the responsibilities placed on
police officers. I've come in contact and worked with hundreds of officers,
from sheriff's and police departments to the State Patrol and crime bureau.
Seldom did I meet an officer who wasn't highly trained, honorable and
dedicated to his or her job, and I find it disheartening to write this
article.

But something's gone drastically wrong.

I was first at the scene of an accident not long ago. The driver was
unconscious behind the wheel, bleeding from the nose and mouth and having
difficulty breathing. Two passengers were shaken up; one was able to go
call for a doctor and ambulance while I looked after the driver.

I held his head up so he could breathe. Thank goodness, a State Patrol
officer was on the scene within minutes. I knew he would be up to date on
first aid and could help me with the injured driver; but, to my surprise,
he began searching the area for evidence of liquor, ignoring the injured.

I'm sure this was a dedicated officer, but something must have gone wrong
during his training. It seemed all he was concerned about was writing a
ticket. I had to yell at him before he came to assist with the injured.

Hennepin County Sheriff Pat McGowan was quoted in the Dec. 15 Star Tribune
as asking, "Can it be in the public's interest when law enforcement sends a
signal to criminals that we will not pursue you?" He also said, "Suspects
have the choice to pull over and stop. We don't."

John Laux, former Minneapolis police chief and former head of the Peace
Officer Standards and Training Board, was quoted Dec. 10 as saying, "You'd
never catch a bad guy if you had to stop at every sign."

I think we should ask what kind of message these statements are sending
Minnesota police officers. Is this what they learn in training?

Shouldn't we be asking ourselves: Has this pervasive drug war, this
win-at-all-costs mentality, made innocent men, women and even children
expendable in Minnesota?

The Legislature should begin an immediate inquiry regarding police training
courses. The governor should appoint a citizens' panel to look into these
matters and issue a comprehensive report. The governor also should consider
including a sociologist on the public safety staff and be personally
involved in the selection of members of the Peace Officer Standards and
Training Board and its executive director.

The mayors of our major cities should review present training programs,
with input from other than police agencies. And one of the major newspapers
in the state should have the courage to underwrite a special investigation
of police training.

And on a broader scope, considering that upwards of 60 percent of our total
law enforcement and judicial resources are spent on the war on drugs, we
should begin to ask the questions posed by Mayor Kurt Schmoke of Baltimore.

At public meetings, the mayor asks three questions: Have we won the drug
war? People laugh. Are we winning the drug war? People shake their heads.
If we keep on doing what we are doing, will we have won the drug war in 10
years? A resounding no.