Police misconduct costing Minnesota taxpayers millions, study shows
MINNEAPOLIS -- A study released early Wednesday morning finds taxpayers are footing the bill for police misconduct in Minnesota.
Hamline University Professor David Schultz and his students collected data from 239 county, city and state governments and agencies.
They found nearly 30% made payouts for police misconduct, ranging from excessive use of force to civil rights violations to property damage.
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In 10 years, nearly 500 incidents led to payouts of more than $160 million.
The study found Minneapolis, where police murdered George Floyd, was responsible for 177 of the payouts and nearly the entire financial burden -- a total of $136 million, or 85%.
Schultz says, right now, there's no mandatory reporting or standardization of data for these.
"If we are going to make any police reforms we need to know the scope of the problem and what is happening," he wrote in part. "I hope this report begins a conversation and leads to the mandating of uniform reporting and data gathering on payouts for police misconduct both in Minnesota and nationwide."
