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New report highlights payouts for police mistakes
No statewide database exists showing how much agencies across the state pay to settle claims based on errors by law enforcement officers.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Cities, counties and state agencies in Minnesota have spent tens of millions of dollars settling claims of officer misconduct, but the exact number is elusive because there’s no statewide reporting requirement for such settlements.
That’s the finding of The Price of Injustice, a new report by Hamline University political science professor David Schultz. He set out two years ago to try to get a clearer picture of how much taxpayers have been asked to pay for errors by law enforcement.
“There’s no state database that reports this. There’s no national database,” Schultz explained. “And after George Floyd was murdered, I kept getting these calls from a lot of reporters asking where’s all this data collected. I said there is no place. It’s not being collected.”
The City of Minneapolis maintains an online officer conduct payout dashboard that includes the total dollars paid, as well as breakout charts detailing the cases. But getting a grip on the statewide payout picture required reeling it in from hundreds of sources.
Schultz worked with a group of his college students and the nonprofit Public Record Media to start the gathering process. They sent data practices requests to 239 different statewide and local governmental entities, focusing on cities above 5,000 population, counties, Metro Transit, and the State Patrol.
“In that group, 70 percent reported zero payouts over conduct, while 30 percent had made those payments. We found approximately 500 situations we found across the state of Minnesota in which municipalities, governments paid out for police misconduct.”
Minneapolis, the state’s largest city, led the pack, with 177 payouts during that time period, followed by Bloomington, which reported 126, and St. Paul with 47.
“This report is neither pro-police or anti-police. For people who are pro police they can come back and say over a 10-year period only 495 over millions of interactions is pretty good. For people who are, let’s say anti-police and want reforms, they could say 495 there’s some problems here.”
Schultz’s team came up with a grand total of $160,784,822 in payouts across that 11-year time frame, with $136,535,708 from Minneapolis.
The request focused on the period between Jan. 1 of 2010 and Dec. 31 of 2020 so it does not include the City of Minneapolis’s $27 million payout to the family of George Floyd in 2021.
It does include the city’s $20 million settlement with John Ruszczyk, the father of Justine Damon Ruszczyk. She was shot to death by an MPD Officer in 2017 after calling 9-1-1 to report an attack in her southwest Minneapolis neighborhood.
The City of Minneapolis disputed Schultz’s total, citing the city’s dashboard which showed a tally of $36,535,708 — exactly $100 million lower than the Schultz report’s figure.
As of Wednesday evening, Schultz was still trying to determine where the math went wrong. He said even if the actual figure is $36 million for Minneapolis out of $60 million statewide it’s still more information than had been compiled before.
“This is what came up when we did the numbers several months ago. We tripled checked it. Was there a glitch in the system? Was there a mistake? Was here an inputting error? There very well could be.”
“I would love people to sort of say here’s stuff we found you didn’t find, or here’s mistakes, etcetera, etcetera. I confess and say this is the first crack at a project that took more than two years to gather.”
Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said the report is misleading because the list of 126 incidents his city provided to the researchers included many property damage claims rather than excessive force cases and other blatant misconduct.
“If you look at the data 53 of those claims resulted in no payments to claimants,” Hodges said in a video statement posted to YouTube.
“Furthermore, the majority of those claims were not allegations of misconduct, meaning they were not allegations we were out there using force on people. The majority of those claims for damage to property and autos.”
He cited an example of officers breaking down a door to reach a woman who was having a medical emergency, something that doesn’t come to mind when people talk about police misconduct.
“Accurate data is key. This report, unfortunately does not provide an avenue to do that,” Hodges remarked. “Our officers go out here every single day and demonstrate respect.”
Kare11
Rescue! – A chase, a crash and martial arts store workers race to save mother and babies in Fenton.
Employees of a Fenton martial arts school ran to the aid of a mother and her babies after the rollover crash. They said their training helped them rescue the family.
FENTON, Mo. — Employees at a martial arts business in Fenton rushed to save a mother and her twin eight-month-old babies after their vehicle was struck during a police pursuit involving federal officers on Interstate 44 in Fenton.
Surveillance video captured the moment a car being pursued by the DEA and Homeland Security struck the woman’s car on Wednesday.
Those who helped rescue them said it was a miracle they walked away alive.
The woman’s car flipped multiple times from the interstate, over the fence, and onto South Highway Drive before it landed in front of Xtreme Krav Maga & Fitness in Fenton.
“All of a sudden, I heard a car crash, screeching noise, and my fellow employee, Lindsay, was here at the front counter, and she said, ‘Oh, that’s not good,'” said Dustin Pluth, a manager at the business.
Within seconds, Pluth sprang into action, running outside to the car.
“It was just kind of an instinct thing. Once I saw the car rolling, coming to a halt, and running up to it, I found a mom and two babies inside,” he said.
Pluth cut the mom’s seatbelt off to get her out and pulled her twin babies out of the sunroof. Then another employee, Lindsay Cross, comforted the mom while walking them inside to get warm.
“She was very terrified of just being in a car wreck number one, not knowing what was going on. She didn’t know what the outcome was, and then she was obviously worried about her kids,” Pluth said.
The business offers self-defense and martial arts classes, as well as medical training and trauma-one classes, which teach people how to become first responders.
Pluth said it’s training that helped them rescue the family.
“Luckily, the good people in this scenario had a few scratches on them, but it could’ve been a worse Christmas. And as a dad, kids being injured is the worst fear ever,” he said.
Of all places for a car accident to end, Pluth said it was the best result of a bad situation.
“She got handled and cared for, and the babies were cared for probably as quickly as we possibly could do. It’s definitely a Christmas miracle that it happened here, and they came as unscathed as possible,” Pluth said.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said several suspects were taken into custody following the federal police pursuit.
Pluth said the mom was a little banged up, but thankfully, they’re all doing well.
Tracie Munce, owner of Merlin’s Rest, joined KARE 11 Saturday to discuss the upcoming singalong and share a dish.
MINNEAPOLIS — A neighborhood bar in south Minneapolis is sharing a popular recipe and announcing the return of a favorite holiday tradition.
Merlin’s Rest, which has been in the Longfellow neighborhood for nearly two decades, will host its annual pub carol singalong on Sunday, Dec. 22·from 2 to 4 p.m.
Merlin’s not only has the most extensive selection of single malt Scotch and Irish whiskey in the state, but it also serves award-winning pub classics like bangers and mash and authentic fish and chips.
Owner Tracie Munce joined KARE 11 Saturday to discuss the upcoming singalong and share a dish.
Recipe: Beef Wellington
- 3lb ribeye roast
- ¾ cups Beef Stock
- Steak seasoning
- 1 ¼ lb crimini mushroom
- ½ shallots
- ¼ onion
- 4 Tbls garlic
- 1 long stalks of rosemary
- 1 TBS bisto gravy mix mixed with 1 TBS cold water
- 1 cups water mixed with 1TBS beef base and 1 TBS garlic base
- 8oz of sliced and diced thinly Ham
- Puff pastry sheets
Coat thawed ribeye with oil and sprinkle steak seasoning all over the roast, cook each side for about 5-8 minutes then transfer to a roaster with about 1-2 cups of beef stock, fat side up. Cover with aluminum foil and roast at 350 degrees for 2 hours – remove from the roaster and let rest – save the juice for gravy.
Clean and quarter mushrooms and place into a food processor, pulse into a small dice. Rough chop shallot and add into the mushroom, pulse a few more times.
Remove rosemary leaves from stem & rough chop, combine with mushrooms and shallots
In a large skillet add 1 Tbs butter and add the mushroom mixture, cook on medium-high heat until all the water has evaporated, about 15 minutes, put in a large bowl
Cube beef, take off fat, and add to the mushroom bowl
Thin, long slices of ham then chop and to beef and mushroom mixture. Salt and Pepper (about 1TBS of each) and combine
Dice onion and garlic and sauté in 1TBS butter until just browning, add juice from roasting the ribeye and about 1 cup of Beef stock. Let boil then add slowly the bisto slurry to thicken. Add a small amount of gravy mixture to the beef mixture to moisten – do not need much gravy.
Cut pastry into large squares and place into jumbo muffin tin. Add ½ cup of meat & mushroom mixture and pull puff over top of meat, pinching to seal everything in. Brush top with egg, and sprinkle with smoked paprika. Bake for 25-30 mins at 350
Add your side of choice with Wellington pie and a side of gravy.
Jamie Preuss from So Happy You Liked It joined KARE 11 Saturday to demonstrate how to DIY a hot buttered rum mix and homemade Irish cream.
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — There might not be anything more heartfelt at the holidays, than homemade gifts. While cookies might be your go-to… how about mixing things up, with a homemade drink mix?
Jamie Preuss from So Happy You Liked It joined KARE 11 Saturday to demonstrate how to DIY a hot buttered rum mix and homemade Irish cream.
Recipe: Hot Buttered Rum
- 1 pint vanilla ice cream, softened
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 oz dark rum
- 6-8 oz hot water
Using a hand mixer, combine all ingredients except ice cream.
Once combined, add softened ice cream, and blend to thoroughly mix in.
Freeze the mixture for at least 2 hours.
In a mug, combine hot water, rum, and 1 heaping spoonful of mixture. Stir to dissolve.
Recipe: Homemade Bailey’s Irish Cream
- 2 T cocoa powder
- 2 t instant espresso
- 1 t vanilla
- 1 t almond
- 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup cream
- 1 1/2 cup Irish whiskey, optional
Mix cocoa and espresso powder with 2 tablespoons of hot water and mix to combine.
Add all ingredients except the cream to a blender (including whiskey if you are using it), and blend to fully combine.
Add the cream to the blender and pulse to combine. Don’t blend
too long because this will start to aerate the cream and make the drink super thick!
Transfer to 1 large or several smaller flip-top glass jars. Give them as gifts or keep them for yourself!
The mix will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
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