By Dave Orrick
star tribune
MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis leaders announced Monday that they have selected a company to build a database to alert them to problems with police officers before they become problems.
The idea is to provide mental health services to police officers in need of a voice, while at the same time creating a technological approach called the Early Intervention System to prevent police officers with a pattern of potential misconduct from being promoted unchecked. ”.
The latter is likely the case of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. He pressed his knee into the neck of at least two men. Mr. Chauvin’s killing of Mr. Floyd triggered state and federal legal intervention and led to years of court-sanctioned police surveillance. City officials believe the early intervention system satisfies one of a series of changes mandated by those lawsuits.
“People always say, ‘How did we not know this officer would do something like that?'” Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at a news conference Monday. “Here’s the answer to that.”
On Monday, Mayor Jacob Frey, O’Hara and others announced that after a national bidding process, they had selected Benchmark Analytics, a Chicago-based company that includes researchers from the University of Chicago and has similar systems in several other major cities, to build the Minneapolis system.
“This doesn’t solve all the problems,” O’Hara said. He stressed that the system is not “discipline” but an “early warning system” that can identify potential concerns for officers beyond traditional complaints of misconduct.
O’Hara said the database analyzes information such as overtime, sick visit patterns, arrest records and off-duty work to look for outliers. The program can help supervisors intervene to “correct an officer’s behavior” before an actual problem occurs, he said.
Nick Barclay, a civilian member of the team implementing the program, said officer health care is a key part of it. “Happy and healthy people produce the best work,” he said.
The $2.375 million, five-year contract requires City Council approval, which could begin action as soon as Thursday.
Part of this funding will come from a $500,000 grant from the Pollard Foundation. The remaining funding will come from general fund spending in the city’s police and information technology budgets.
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