Mpls. police misconduct reviews may change

The Minneapolis Civilian Review Authority may soon change the way it investigates complaints of police misconduct.

A Minneapolis City Council committee Wednesday approved a set of changes to the 20-year-old organization, some of which are opposed by anti-police brutality advocates and current members of the review authority board.

One of the most controversial measures would add several officers from the department's Internal Affairs Unit to look into civilian complaints.

Council member Don Samuels said this will help speed up the investigation process. He also said increased police involvement will foster more dialogue between officers and civilian members of the board.

"They're sitting down to talk and learning from each other as to what's working; how people are feeling; and learning what expectations are, what standards are, from each other," Samuels said.

But Al Giraud, a current member of the Civilian Review Authority board, said more officer investigators would diminish the independent nature of civilian review.

"Independent third-party information is how you can help affect your culture," Giraud said. "If you're going to take that away and limit to just more police speaking to themselves about how they act, how is that going to help their culture?"

Proponents of the overhaul say the additional investigators will speed up the process and prevent bottlenecks which have historically plagued the civilian review process.

The full council votes on the proposal next week.