August 17, 2000 - Emotions ran high last night as 40 citizens addressed a city council hearing on police conduct during last month's animal genetics conference. During the three hour-hearing, people who were involved in the protests against the conference or who were just observers railed against the police department, the chief and the city council over the conduct of officers and the cost of the operation.
October 5, 2000 - Minnesota's top African American law enforcement officials met Wednesday night to discuss racial profiling. The discussion was sponsored by the Minnesota chapter of National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. Participants offered various reasons people of color seem to get singled out disproportionately in the criminal justice system and possible solutions to the problem.
October 26, 2000 - A statewide committee is calling for a two-year study to determine whether officers pull over drivers because of their race. Although some Minnesota police departments are already recording the race of the people they pull over, they are currently not required to do so. Republican Rich Stanek is a state representative and Minneapolis police officer. He was on the committee formed to look at racial profiling, and he's still deciding whether to go along with the committee's suggestion that the state require a study.
November 3, 2000 - Minneapolis Police officers are in Memphis this week, training to handle cases involving the mentally ill. The training is the first step towards developing a program similar to one that exists in Memphis -- where 165 police officers make up a special crisis intervention team trained to de-escalate confrontations with mentally disturbed individuals. Earlier this week, police in Minneapolis shot and killed a man with serious mental illness after he reportedly sped toward police in a car. It was the third such incident this year. The Memphis police re-examined how they handled incidents involving the mentally ill after a man with a bi-polar disorder was shot to death by an officer in 1987. Public outcry prompted the creation of the Memphis Police Crisis Intervention Team, or C-I-T. Lt. Sam Cochran, coordinator of the program is good for the police, the mentally ill and the city.
January 9, 2001 - A state legislator plans to introduce a bill in a few weeks which will help determine if racial profiling occurs in Minnesota. Representative Rich Stanek of Maple Grove says the measure will provide financial help for police departments who wish to document the race of the people its officers pull over in traffic stops. However, critics of the proposal say without mandating racial data collection, the bill has no teeth.
January 10, 2001 - According to data gathered by the St. Paul Police department, African Americans are being stopped and searched at a higher rate than Whites. Police Chief William Finney says the figures don't denote racial profiling by his officers. But to others, the study points to a pattern which they say is all too familiar.
January 10, 2001 -
January 10, 2001 - Robert Olson is up for his second contract renewal after six years as chief of Minneapolis police. Olson is expected to win reappointment, even though he faces opposition by some residents and city leaders. His opponents point to rough handling of protestors at a Minneapolis genetics conference earlier this year as evidence that Olson permits a culture of brutality. Opponents plan to speak out at a city committee hearing today but are not likely to sway enough council votes to oust the chief.
January 17, 2001 - According to data released late yesterday by the Minneapolis Police Department, Black motorists are more likely to be stopped and arrested than Whites. The figures, were collected from May first to November 1st of last year. Police Chief Robert Olson says the public should wait until the raw data is analyzed before making conclusions. However, some see the preliminary data as proof of racism influencing the policing of the inner-city.
January 18, 2001 - The police departments in Minneapolis and St. Paul released data this month showing that black motorists are pulled over or searched more frequently than white motorists. There are calls for the statewide collection of traffic stop data to try and determine if there is a pattern of racial profiling, but several state police officers groups oppose that. Mark Robbins teaches students at Mankato State who are studying to be police officers. He says the raw data doesn't provide enough information.