Minneapolis police officers required to watch beating video

Starting today, officers with the Minneapolis Police Department will be required to view a videotaped incident in which officers kicked and punched a man who they say resisted before he was arrested.

Officers will be with a supervisor when they watch the video of a traffic stop recorded in February that shows an officer struggling to wrestle 42-year-old Derryl Jenkins to the ground. Backup units arrive and several of those officers punch and kick Jenkins as they try to handcuff him. Jenkins sustained cuts and bruises and was briefly hospitalized.

Chief Tim Dolan is requiring the department's approximately 800 officers to watch the video on a large screen during roll call, according to police spokesman Sgt. Jesse Garcia.

Garcia said there will be no planned discussions after officers view the video, but it will give them a chance "to talk about the differences between passive resistance and aggressive resistance and what can be done different, what can be done in addition to, what was out there that night," he said.

"Basically it's going to be used as a training tool," Garcia said.

The Minneapolis police department has cameras in about 60 percent of its vehicles. Cameras are activated automatically when an officer turns on the car's overhead lights. They record video onto equipment that's locked in the trunk.

Dolan also ordered that any future use-of-force recorded on squad car cameras will be reviewed immediately. Currently, these videos are reviewed on a case-by-case basis, Garcia said.

The new policy is meant to prevent certain videos "do not get missed or fall through the cracks," Garcia said.

The Jenkins' video "potentially could have been viewed much earlier and we're trying to prevent that from happening again," Garcia said.