Former Minneapolis cop says MPD rejected his intervention training offers twice

A former Minneapolis police sergeant, recognized for his work in helping clean up the scandal-plagued New Orleans Police Department, says he twice offered his old department training that could have prevented the death of George Floyd. Twice he was turned down.

Michael Quinn, a retired 23-year veteran of the Minneapolis Police Department, said he offered intervention training to two former MPD chiefs. The training teaches officers how to intervene with a fellow officer before situations escalate and is credited with changing cultures in police departments. Quinn says the training would have taught Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane what to do when they saw then-officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck. The three are now charged with aiding and abetting second degree murder; their charging documents stating “none of the officers moved from their positions” as Floyd lay dying.

After decades of police brutality and corruption cases in which officers witnessed their co-workers engage in illegal acts but did nothing — or helped them actively conceal the crimes — some police reformers developed a new training protocol focused on the duty to intervene.

Known as “peer intervention training,” the method seeks to create a different culture inside police departments, one that encourages officers to correct their co-workers, rather than remain silent or participate in cover-ups.

Read more: https://minnesotareformer.com/2020/07/02/former-minneapolis-cop-says-mpd-rejected-his-intervention-training-offers-twice/4