Civil Service

It's exceptionally difficult to get rid of a rogue cop, even when it gets expensive:

A judge’s order in a Minneapolis police brutality suit last week pushed the city’s bill to $410,653.33 for two lawsuits filed against police officer Michael Griffin.

The suits, one stemming from a 2010 incident and the other from 2011, both involve cases in which Griffin was off-duty and at downtown bars when he allegedly punched or kicked people who did not want to fight him. Three people were hospitalized as a result of the incidents, including one man who was unconscious and bleeding for more than five minutes, according to one of the lawsuits.

Griffin remains a patrol officer in the Fourth Precinct on the city’s North Side, according to a department spokesman. The status of an internal affairs review of the incidents was not immediately available Friday.

I don't doubt that we'll hear accolades about Griffin's valor. In fact, the Star Tribune includes one near the top of the story:

Griffin was awarded the department’s medal of valor last year for his response to the 2012 Accent Signage killings, when he was among the first officers to arrive at the scene of the mass workplace shooting.

Thank you, officer. Now, back to the carnage:

The Star Tribune reported last summer that of 95 payouts totaling $14 million for police misconduct since 2006, only eight of the cases led to discipline for police officers.

The city’s latest bill arrived Thursday, when U.S. District Court Judge David Doty ordered the city to pay $145,653.33 in attorney’s fees for the lawsuit brought by Jeremy Axel, an IT salesman from St. Louis Park who was knocked unconscious by Griffin on Nov. 4, 2011. In December, a federal jury awarded Axel $125,000 in his excessive-force claim against the officer.

And last month, the Minneapolis City Council approved a $140,000 settlement with Ibrahim Regai, who alleged that he was threatened, followed, then punched and knocked to the ground by Griffin outside a Minneapolis bar May 29, 2010.

The three payments total $410,653.33 and together amount to one of the larger payouts the city has made for the actions of one officer.

Think about those numbers -- $14 million! Since 2006! That's $1.75 million a year, every year, to deal with police misconduct in Minneapolis. This is a problem that should have been addressed long ago, but it's exceptionally difficult to get rid of cops who misbehave. Everyone stipulates that police work can be stressful and dangerous, but there's no good reason to tolerate off-duty officers picking fights in the bars.