Yes, in the last few years lawsuits have been down. Partly because of an aggressive litigation strategy by the City Attorney and also because the council has decided to be more aggressive about not standing up for officers who don't abide by the rules. Overall if you look at our payouts on lawsuits (and deduct the kondirator) the City Attorney's office is winning more and payouts are down considerably. As to the Federation issue. Sometimes where the Federation stands isn't necessarily where the rank and file is. That's why the chief issue is such a loaded one and should be approached with caution. The Federation may like Lucy Gerald but that doesn't mean the rank and file agrees. While I have the utmost respect for Lucy and think she is an able administrator, many rank and filers don't feel she has enough time on the street as a cop in order to be the chief. Lisa McDonald East Harriet ----- Original Message ----- From: Anderson & Turpin Sent: Sunday, April 21, 2002 12:21 AM To: mpls@mnforum Subject: [Mpls] Olsen out? I'm not sure where I come down on the likely ouster of the police chief, but
I am going to play devil's advocate to all those who can't get rid of him
soon enough.
A few people have suggested that a $300,000 buyout fee is cheap, in
comparison to all the lawsuits (of police brutality I assume) we may be
avoiding. But it just occurred to me that I haven't heard of such a lawsuit
in several years. For a while there, it seemed like we had a couple of
lawsuits per year. Is it just that the Strib has stopped reporting on them
because they happen so often they are no longer news? I find that unlikely,
because the Strib loves to highlight troubles in government. Maybe the
current chief really has stopped most of the police thumping. Sauro is
still with the Department, but I haven't heard anything bad about him for
awhile. Is it possible that Olsen has laid down the law that police
thumping will no longer occur, and the street police are listening? I'm
sure there's still some thumping going on, but the decline in lawsuits
suggests to me that at least the most egregious acts have ended.
Olsen has gotten into most of his trouble, at least on this List, for the
massive police interventions, and perhaps mistakes in judgment (I don't
believe anyone can reasonably call the Somalian action thumping). My
biggest concern with Olsen is simply that he doesn't explain himself. When
each of these episodes come up, the police need to be right there in the
middle of the discussion, explaining why they did what they did. Instead,
we get a bunch of hotheads attacking the police force, and one can only
respond by guessing the intent of the police.
It also scares me a bit that Rybak could be somewhat in the thrall of the
Police Federation. the Police Federation's goals are certainly not those of
the people of Minneapolis. I remember when I first decided that the
Federation is run by bad guys. When Jerry Haaf was shot in the back in the
Pizza Shack, the head of the Police Federation (Berryman I believe) blamed
this murder on the current chief's work on rapprochement with the gangs in
Minneapolis. This was an absurd comment - how could working with the gangs
result in a gang member deciding he had to shoot a cop? Berryman must have
known this was absurd, but said it anyway, to get a political benefit from
the goodwill generated towards the police because of the shooting. He used
the death of one of his own for political benefit. I've seen no indication
since that the Federation has become more civic minded since then.
Back to Olsen, he may also be partly responsible for the decline in crime
during the last several years. If we go looking for a Chief that is good
at community work, we may lose the management skills that help fight crime
and decrease thumping. Do we want to go back to Murderapolis and twice
yearly lawsuits? I don't know if Olsen was responsible for the
improvements, but it certainly is possible.
Mark Anderson
Bancroft
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