Report: Strike Force rife with misconductA state investigation into the disbanded Metro Gang Strike Force uncovered "substantial evidence of misconduct" that appears to go well beyond the revelations that were previously reported by news organizations or uncovered in earlier government probes.
A report issued this morning found that Strike Force employes and officers repeatedly took home property obtained during searches. The property included flat-screen and large-screen televisions, laptops and other computer equipment and electronics, jewelry and other items.
Almost all the people the Strike Force stopped while saturating neighborhoods were minorities, and property and money was seized even though the targeted individuals were not members of gangs, and even though the Strike Force had no intention of further investigating them or seeking to prosecute them.
"Something went terribly wrong at the Metro Gang Strike Force, and it should not be allowed to happen gain," the report said. It recommended that there be no stand-alone Strike Force units that are untethered from a law enforcement agency, and the report urged the Legislature to consider revamping the state's seizure and forfeiture laws.
There was some praise from the "hard and thorough work" of some Strike Force members. But the report said others engaged in "highly questionable conduct," leading the report's authors to conclude that there seemed to be two Strike Forces -- one that adhered to the rules, and another that functioned as an independent police force with few constraints.
Some of the property removed by officers from the evidence room had been stolen by criminals and could have been returned to the rightful owners, according to the report. One witness called the taking of property a "free for all."
The report was issued today by a panel headed by former assistant U.S. Attorney Andy Luger and retired FBI special agent John Egelhof.
On a number of occasions, officers or their families were allowed to purchase for low prices items from the evidence room, including television sets, jet skis and a trailer, the report said. One officer tried to privately sell thousands of dollars of seized watches and the watches that still have not been recovered.
The report was made public at a morning news conference at the state Department of Public Safety, following an investigation ordered by the department commissioner, Michael Campion, who ordered the Strike Force permanently shut down last month after its operations were suspended in May.
The report also said that substantial quantities of evidence that should still be in the evidence room of the Strike Force's headquarters in New Brighton were missing, including, televisions, electronics, recreational equipment and jewelry.
Many items seized, including narcotics, were never entered into evidence and were found in the offices outside of the evidence room, the report said.
One of the key jobs of the anti-gang units were what police called "saturation" activity, in which a number of Strike Force members, sometimes a dozen or more, would attend major, outdoor community events to discourage criminal activity by gang members or spread out through a neighborhood after a crime.
But the Luger-Egelhof panel said that frequently, during the saturations, the Strike Force members stopped, searched and seized money and property from individuals who were not gang members, and the officers had no intention of seeking charges against the people.
Indeed, the report said, the funds were taken without regard to whether it was connected to illegal activity. The Strike Force members conducted searches of cell phones without warrants, the report said. Photos were taken of children and others who had no gang connections, and property was taken that had no relation to search warrants.
Most of the stops of individuals were people of color, the report said.
A Minnesota Legislative Auditor's report in May found that $18,000 of seized funds was missing. After its own investigation, the panel said that $10,781 still was missing. The report found that a relative of a Strike Force employee had regular access to the Force's offices and was observed handling seized property. Files included signed statements that evidence had been destroyed, but it was in fact not destroyed, the report said.
Strike Force members shredded files in the New Brighton office hours after the auditor's report was issued, and those shredded documents included material relevant to numerous cases, including one entire case file, according to the report. Official case files on that day were found to have been tossed behind the headquarters into bins that were open to the public.
The investigators spent weeks looking at Strike Force files and found many lacked the most fundamental kind of information about the cases, and some files were empty, even though it was known that there were active investigations of those cases.
Some of the Strike Force members referred to themselves as "money police" because of the frequent seizures, and their conduct would be "unthinkable" in their home agencies, which have greater supervision and tighter standards, the report said.
