Abstract

The Pro-Police Review Board

The outcry in Minneapolis for an external review process for misconduct complaints against the police has risen and fallen over the years. It reached a new height after a pair of 1989 incidents. Protests broke out in front of City Hall, Mayor Don Fraser's office and the state Capitol. Community leaders "rammed the issue down the City Council's throat," in the words of one community activist. The critical question was whether the board would have subpoena power, which-in the view of national experts on civilian review as well as local activists and working committee members amounts to the difference between a board with the legal means to do substantive investigations and one whose powers are marginal at best. From the beginning the board was framed in terms conciliatory to the police department.