Rochester inches forward on police reform

Amid a period of reform, defunding, and even dismantling of police departments across America, Rochester’s police department finds itself under added scrutiny. With new recommendations from the police commission and use-of-force data now available to the public, the city’s top cop met with the city council on Monday to discuss the current situation and path forward for RPD. 

Chief Jim Franklin’s report to the council came days after Rochester’s Police Policy Oversight Commission recommended changes to the city’s use of force policy — most notably regarding ‘carotid control,’ a type of neck restraint. The move was restricted to use only in ‘deadly force’ situations by Chief Franklin in a previous commission meeting. 

Last Tuesday, the commission recommended RPD add another layer of restriction, suggesting officers be outlawed from using the restraint on a handcuffed subject.

“We should not just assume that this is going to be a situation that [officers] understand,” said W.C. Jordan, police oversight commissioner and president of the Rochester chapter of the NAACP. “I think the verbiage should be put in there to make sure that this is not a hold they can use when somebody is already restrained with handcuffs.”

While the commission cannot implement policies by itself, Franklin expressed willingness to adopt the recommendations put forward by the commission. In an interview Monday with Med City Beat, the chief noted the commission’s role as a bridge between police actions and public trust.

“As the commission settles in, we’ll continue to utilize it under its scope of purpose — that is, policy review, and being that voice for the public,” said Franklin. “As we go through the complete policy manual revision, there’s a lot of work in front of us, and I look forward to working directly, hand in hand, with the commission.”

RPD’s New Public Tools 

Late last week, RPD released extensive data to the public (for the first time) on all 240 use of force incidents since the start of 2019. The data is presented on various dashboards, with breakdowns by type of resistance, types of force used, and racial demographics on subjects.

Out of the 28,000 calls for service so far in 2020, 71 resulted in a use of force. About a third of all cases list ‘muscling’ as a force tactic, which Franklin says is a low-force move commonly used in situations without the threat of violence.

“If you take the stat ‘verbal noncompliance’ [cited in 10 percent of all use of force cases], and compare it with the type of force used, one of them is muscling,” said Franklin. “That’s a soft empty hand, where maybe you have a verbally non-compliant person that won’t turn around and put their hands behind their back, so an officer grabs their arm, and they comply.” 

Franklin added the department reviews all uses of force, regardless of whether or not a complaint was filed. Out of the 240 instances reviewed by the department, one officer was disciplined in 2019.

Comments from the Council

Council discussion brought forth lists of questions and comments for the chief, most notably from Mayor Kim Norton (who oversees the Police Policy Oversight Commission). Top on her list of proposals was the creation of a ‘community liaison’ position, meant to serve as connectors between various neighborhoods and city government. 

“They’re community members, not police officers, who are the liaison between the community, who can really say ‘this is what’s happening in the neighborhoods,’” said Norton. 

Franklin said he was considering piloting the liaison program, as the police force itself goes through an expected period of retirement and turnover. Sixteen percent of current RPD officers have been hired in the past two years — 56 percent of whom are women or people of color.

All officers, the chief said, must go through an eight-week ‘rookie academy’ before hitting the streets. (Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester, and the State Patrol are the only departments in Minnesota to require this training.)

“Running the academy is one of the strengths of this department,” said Franklin. “If you got hired by almost any other city in Minnesota, you’re handed a uniform, a badge, and get four months of field training. We’re able to run people through additional defensive tactics, de-escalation training, additional scenarios, report writing, and integrate them into the Rochester community.”

While the chief expressed a desire to personally review and consolidate the council’s recommendations (“what’s feasible, and what’s not feasible?”), Councilor Nick Campion was wary of trying to rush through conversations on multi-faceted topics, like the militarization of modern police.

“I don’t immediately want to take any of these questions off, because if I don't feel comfortable with the answer, I can tell you there’s a lot of members of the public who don’t spend all the time reading the supporting material that want to understand how this works,” said Campion. “We have this opportunity to open up this conversation and say ‘what do we want this to look like?’”

Council discussion ran far past the allotted 60-minute timeframe before being tabled, meaning the conversation will continue at a later meeting.

Isaac Jahns is a Rochester native and a 2019 graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. He reports on politics, business and music for Med City Beat.

Cover photo: File / licensed via Getty