A positive spin on policing?

Opinion editor’s note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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Police deal with the messiness of humanity, sometimes in its most extreme manifestations, so it’s no surprise that public impressions of the profession are complicated.

An appreciation of nuance is necessary for those who wish to focus on law enforcement’s mistakes and abuses — perceived or actual, direct or insidious. It’s critical as well for those who realistically view police work as always needed, sometimes heroic and often thankless, and who begin to feel that scrutiny of those efforts has been at times excessive and denigrating.

We on the Star Tribune Editorial Board have found ourselves in both frames of mind. Today, we want to highlight a few recent examples of police involvement that ended with the best possible outcomes — while remaining mindful of another that didn’t.

In Minneapolis earlier this month, police arrested a man after forcing their way into an apartment where the suspect was holding a grandmother and child at gunpoint. According to subsequent charges, the suspect had shot in the direction of five officers as they went up a staircase in tactical formation. The officers did not return fire. In a news conference following the incident, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara thanked officers for their bravery and “extreme restraint.” He expressed gratitude “that this situation did not turn out much more dangerous and even deadly than it was.”

Also earlier this month, the Chippewa County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies arrested a suspect at his home in Watson, in southwestern Minnesota, after a six-hour standoff. The man, a former mayor of that town, had made social media posts threatening to kill students at the University of Minnesota, in addition to members of the sheriff’s office and judges, according to charges. The threats triggered safety alerts at the university, where the spring semester had not yet begun, and lockdowns at other schools and colleges.

These are things that made news. They don’t include the myriad crises police help to resolve every day without the loss of life. The work doesn’t slow.

Nor does it always end well. Overlapping the time frames of these events was an incident in East Grand Forks, Minn., where an undercover officer shot and killed a man who had been sought by members of a multi-county drug task force, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The officer did not have a body-worn camera, and footage of the shooting was not captured. The BCA is reviewing other footage. Family members have called for accountability.

Accountability in this case is complicated by the undercover nature of the incident. But it is improving in a broad sense. The general use of body cameras is one example. Others involve administration and tactics.

In Minneapolis, which became a national focus of police conduct following the murder of George Floyd, a consent decree settlement has been reached with both the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and another is pending with the federal Department of Justice. Soon the city will approve hiring an independent team of evaluators to monitor the progress under both agreements — oversight that will continue for years.

It’s important to remember, too, that police themselves look for ways to mitigate the risks their work poses to others.

The Pioneer Press recently reported, as the Star Tribune has previously, on technology that allows officers to apprehend fleeing drivers without a high-speed chase. Instead they use a laser-assisted launcher powered by compressed air to attach a GPS tracker to the vehicle. Ramsey County and municipalities including Maplewood and Woodbury have invested in the system, called StarChase. The American Civil Liberties Union has reviewed and supports the use of the technology, the paper noted.

“High-speed pursuits are probably one of the most dangerous things that police officers engage in,” the paper quoted Sgt. Chris Donahoe of the Woodbury Police Department as saying. “Any technology that can allow us to still be effective, but do it in a safer manner, we’re in favor of.”