MINNEAPOLIS — Even as the Minneapolis Police Department reels in the aftermath of its officers’ involvement in the killing of George Floyd, the department has been recruiting a new crop of trainees who will face the same challenge of every rookie: navigating the dramatic difference between what is preached at the academy and what is practiced on the street.
In the Minneapolis Police Academy, cadets are trained to be mindful of their own biases, to treat the public with respect and to use force only when necessary. But then they enter station houses and squad cars with veteran officers who may view policing differently — as an us-versus-them profession with a potential threat on every street corner.
Since Mr. Floyd’s death, the process of turning civilians into effective officers on the Minneapolis force has taken on added urgency, and raised questions in the mind of one senior officer of how to tell who might be capable of abusive policing, such as pressing a knee into a suspect’s neck, as former Officer Derek Chauvin did on the evening of May 25 as three of his colleagues, two of them rookies, looked on. Continue reading.