The Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) is an administrative body of the

State of Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to i ...

that sets regulations and controls the training and licensing of police officers. The Minnesota legislature replaced the Minnesota Peace Officer Training Board (MPOTB) with POST in 1977. Minnesota was the first

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

to introduce an

occupational licensing Occupational licensing, also called occupational licensure, is a form of government regulation requiring a license to pursue a particular profession or vocation for compensation. It is related to occupational closure. Professions that can have a ...

system for

law enforcement officer A law enforcement officer (LEO), or peace officer in North American English, is a Public sector, public-sector employee whose duties primarily involve the Law enforcement, enforcement of laws. The phrase can include campaign disclosure specialist ...

s. The POST Executive Director reports to the board's 15 members which include 10 law enforcement officers, two educators and two members of the public, all appointed by the governor, plus the superintendent of the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, who serves ex officio. Colleges and universities that offer training for police officers must be certified by the Board. The Board is responsible for the exams candidates must pass before they can become police officers in Minnesota. More than 80 percent of Minnesota's police officers receive their training through one of colleges or universities in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. POST is also tasked with revoking licenses of police officers found guilty of felony offences (automatic revocation), or other crimes or offensive conduct, but an investigative report showed that this happens much less frequently than similar-sized jurisdictions such as

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

and describes POST as "lax oversight".

Inquiry into the July 2016 killing of Philando Castile

On July 6, 2016,

Philando Castile On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile, a 32-year-old African-American man, was fatally shot during a traffic stop by police officer Jeronimo Yanez of the St. Anthony police department in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. Castile was ...

, a 32-year-old black man, was shot and killed by police officer Jeronimo Yanez during a routine traffic stop. The Board looked into the killing, and determined Yanez had only received a total of two hours of de-escalation training in his five years on the force. The killing stirred controversy, and the Board recommended creating a fund to modify police training to help prevent the kind of rapid escalation of the use of force seen in this killing. In 2017 Minnesota's Governor endorsed a recommendation the fund should be named in honor of Castile. The recommendation triggered opposition from the State's police officers. Bob Kroll, the outspoken leader of the Minneapolis

police union A police union is a trade union for police officers. Police unions formed later than most other occupations, reflecting both a conservative tendency and relatively superior working conditions. The first police unions formed in the United States. Sh ...

, argued that the fund's name should honor police officers. In July 2018 Teresa Nelson, legal director of the Minnesota branch of the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

(ACLU) published a report critical of Minnesota's investigations into the killing. Her criticisms included the recommendation that the Board have the authority to revoke police officer licenses. The legislature changed the regulations to require police officers to undergo at least 16 hours of crisis intervention training.

Star Tribune investigative reporting of October 2017

On October 1, 2017, the ''

Star Tribune The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...

'' of

Minneapolis–Saint Paul Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a metropolitan area in the Upper Midwestern United States centered around the confluence of the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix rivers in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is commonly known as the Twin Cities ...

published an investigative report into Minnesota police officers convicted of crimes who continued to work as police officers. The newspaper reported that, since 1995, more than 500 police officers had been convicted of crimes and continued to work as police officers because officers could only lose their licenses if convicted of felonies. Tim Bildsoe, the Board's chairman, said that the Board followed a 1970s-era model and called on Minnesota's legislature to increase the Board's authority over officers. The ''Star Tribune'' compared Minnesota's Board with

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and

's police certification boards. In Oregon any conviction can trigger a license revocation, and the report noted "Oregon which has fewer police than Minnesota, revokes about 35 licenses each year. Minnesota revokes one or two." In Georgia, a license can be revoked for any act "which is indicative of bad moral character or untrustworthiness."

Inquiry into the May 2020 murder of George Floyd

The May 25, 2020

murder of George Floyd On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's n ...

by officers of the

Minneapolis Police Department The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) is the primary law enforcement agency in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is also the largest police department in Minnesota. Formed in 1867, it is the second-oldest police department in Minnesot ...

and subsequent worldwide protests triggered discussion on how to update police training.

Derek Chauvin Derek Michael Chauvin ( ; born March 19, 1976) is an American former police officer who was convicted for the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Chauvin was a member of the Minneapolis Police ...

, Tou Thao, Thomas K. Lane and James Alexander Kueng, the four officers with a role in Floyd's murder, were fired, and later criminally charged, but continued to hold licenses to work as police officers. According to the ''

'', the Board started a review of their licenses to work as police officers on June 17, 2020.

Scholarly analysis

As the first board of its kind in the U.S., POST has been studied by scholars. In 1984, Maria Pastoor criticized the Board's training on how to react to

domestic violence Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...

. According to Pastoor, the training the Board oversaw defined domestic violence as a crime against the family, while using a "hierarchical family model" that placed males, and their interests, in an inherently superior position. In 2009, Susan M. Hilal and Timothy E. Erickson of

Metropolitan State University Metropolitan State University (Metro State) is a public university in the Minneapolis–St. Paul, Minnesota metropolitan area. It is a member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.

noted that no other state had required all police officers to earn a college degree.

Future

The Board's chair, Kelly McCarthy, testified before a committee of the

Minnesota House of Representatives The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower house of the Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. There are 134 members, twice as many as the Minnesota Senate. Floor sessions are held in the north wing of the State Capitol in Saint Pa ...

, on July 1, 2020, about the many challenges the Board would face while adjusting to changing public attitudes on police accountability.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite news , url = https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-police-officers-convicted-of-serious-crimes-still-on-the-job/437687453/ , title = SHIELDED BY THE BADGE - PART 1: CONVICTED, BUT STILL POLICING , work =

, author1 = Jennifer Bjorhus , author2 = MaryJo Webster , date = 2017-10-01 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20171001035333/https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-police-officers-convicted-of-serious-crimes-still-on-the-job/437687453/ , archivedate = 2017-10-01 , accessdate = 2020-06-30 , url-status = live , quote = LAX OVERSIGHT - In case after case, the state’s police licensing authority did not hold officers, like the ones below, accountable...To assess Minnesota’s performance, the Star Tribune reviewed hundreds of pages of documents from the state’s police oversight agency, the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Board, as well as court records, victim statements and police reports. {{cite news , url = https://theuptake.org/2020/07/02/mn-house-committee-hosts-hearing-on-police-accountability/ , title = MN House Committee hosts hearing on Police Accountability , work = The Uptake , author = Sheila Regan , date = 2020-07-02 , location = , archiveurl = , archivedate = , accessdate = 2020-06-21 , url-status = live , quote = Kelly McCarthy, Chair of the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST), testified that the next few years would be critical for the board. “The type of real change we are committed to takes time,” she said. “We are at risk for losing our officers who feel unsupported.” {{cite news , title = Is Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training evidence-based practice? A systematic review , year = 2018 , journal = Journal of Crime and Justice , author1 = Jillian Peterson , author2 = James Densley , doi = 10.1080/0735648X.2018.1484303 , quote = CIT is ‘more than just training’ (CIT International 2017), but increasingly only the 40-h law enforcement training aspect of the CIT model is consistently used. In January 2018, for example, the Minnesota board of Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) approved learning objectives for training in crisis intervention and mental illness crises, as required by Minnesota Statute 626.8469. {{cite journal , url = https://secure.suu.edu/hss/polscj/journal/v2n2.pdf#page=12 , title = College Education as a State-Wide Licensing Requirement: An Analysis of the Minnesota Model 30 Years Later , author1 = Susan M. Hilal , author2 = Timothy E. Erickson , journal = Critical Issues in Justice and Politics , year = 2009 , archiveurl = , archivedate = , accessdate = 2020-06-30 , url-status = live , quote = While there are individual agencies in other states that have adopted both two-year and four-year degree requirements (see for instance Bowman, 2001; Carter, Sapp & Stevens, 1989; Police Association of College Education

ACE An ace is a playing card, Dice, die or domino with a single Pip (counting), pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit (cards), suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large a ...

2008; Travis, 1995), to date no other state has followed Minnesota’s lead in requiring a post-secondary degree for entry level licensing or certification. {{cite journal , url = https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1294&context=lawineq , title = Police Training and the Effectiveness of Minnesota "Domestic Abuse" Laws , journal = Law & Inequality: A Journal of Theory and Practice , volume = 2 , issue = 2 , year = 1984 , author = Maria K. Pastoor , archiveurl = , archivedate = , accessdate = 2020-06-30 , url-status = live , quote = In a hierarchical family men are more important and more powerful than women and girls. Women take care of men's and boys' emotions, and their physical, including sexual, needs. {{cite news , url = https://www.aclu.org/blog/racial-justice/two-years-after-police-killing-philando-castile-justice-continues-be-denied , title = Two Years After the Police Killing of Philando Castile, Justice Continues to Be Denied , publisher =

, author = Teresa Nelson , date = 2018-07-06 , archiveurl = , archivedate = , accessdate = 2020-06-30 , url-status = live , quote = We also need to facilitate investigations and, where appropriate, discipline officers who use excessive force. First, the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training, which is responsible for dispensing occupational licenses to law enforcement, should be empowered to act like every other professional licensing board and conduct its own separate investigations and make its own decisions about actions against an officer’s license. {{cite news , url = https://newsone.com/3729799/philando-castile-police-training-fund/ , title = Minnesota Police Training Fund Won't Be Named After Philando Castile , work = News One , author = Stephanie Lang , date = 2017-07-31 , archiveurl = , archivedate = , accessdate = 2020-06-30 , url-status = live , quote = However, after strong opposition from law enforcement, a Minnesota peace officer training board voted against naming the $12 million initiative after Castile on Thursday, disappointing members of Castile’s family, the Pioneer Press reports. {{cite news , url = https://newsone.com/3723987/philando-castile-minnesota-police-training-fund-12000000/ , title = Minnesota Weighs Naming $12 Million Cop Training Fund For Philando Castile , work = News One , author = Clarissa Hamlin , date = 2017-07-07 , archiveurl = , archivedate = , accessdate = 2020-06-30 , url-status = live , quote = The money will likely be divided and distributed among police departments across Minnesota. The Peace Officer Standards and Training board, a group of law enforcement officers and community members, will determine how to specifically use the new training dollars, which were approved by the state legislature earlier this year. {{cite news , url = https://www.startribune.com/yanez-had-limited-training-in-defusing-situations-records-show/430256953/ , title = Yanez had limited training in defusing situations, records show , work =

, author = Brandon Stahl , date = 2017-06-22 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20170623032351/https://www.startribune.com/yanez-had-limited-training-in-defusing-situations-records-show/430256953/ , archivedate = 2017-06-22 , accessdate = 2020-06-30 , url-status = live , quote = This year the Legislature passed a bill to triple state reimbursement for police training from $320 per officer to $1,000 that would begin in 2018 and require 16 hours of training in areas that would use de-escalation, said Nathan Gove, executive director of the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training. {{cite news , url = https://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2020/06/break-the-cycle-fives-changes-in-minnesota-policing-that-can-be-enacted-right-now/ , title = Break the cycle: Five changes in Minnesota policing that can be enacted right now , work =

Minnesota Post ''MinnPost'' is a nonprofit online newspaper in Minneapolis, founded in 2007, with a focus on Minnesota news. Funding ''MinnPosts initial funding of $850,000 came from four families: John and Sage Cowles, Lee Lynch and Terry Saario, Joel an ...

, author1 = Gina Erickson , author2 = Sarah Greenman , author3 = Jillian Peterson , author4 = Shelly Schaefer , date = 2020-06-02 , archiveurl = , archivedate = , accessdate = 2020-06-29 , url-status = live , quote = Officer Chauvin’s previous use of force incidents should have been reviewed by a board that includes citizens, separate from criminal and administrative investigations. This is being done in other cities, to increase transparency and accountability. Domestic Fatality Review teams can be used as a model. {{cite news , url = https://www.minnpost.com/glean/2020/06/minnesota-ag-ellison-sues-oil-companies-over-climate-change/ , title = Minnesota AG Ellison sues oil companies over climate change , work =

, author = Brian Lambert , date = 2020-06-25 , archiveurl = , archivedate = , accessdate = 2020-06-29 , url-status = live , quote = Erik Misselt, the interim director of the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training, said the POST board’s policies haven’t kept up with the public’s expectations for police accountability. … Misselt said he’d like to see the POST board go to the state Legislature and ask for changes in state laws to broaden its authority. {{cite news , url = https://dps.mn.gov/entity/post/about/Pages/default.aspx , title = About the POST Board , work = Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training , author = , date = , page = , location = , isbn = , language = , trans-title = , archiveurl = , archivedate = , accessdate = 2020-06-29 , url-status = live , quote = This site's ''about'' page is now password protected against public viewing. {{cite news , url = https://kbjr6.com/2020/06/25/mn-state-to-review-law-enforcement-training-programs/ , title = MN State to review law enforcement training programs , work =

KBJR-TV KBJR-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Superior, Wisconsin, United States, serving the Duluth, Minnesota, area as an affiliate of NBC and CBS. It is owned by Gray Television alongside CW+ affiliate KDLH (channel 3). Both statio ...

, author = Emma Quinn , date = 2020-06-25 , location =

Cloquet, Minnesota Cloquet ( ) is a city in Carlton County, Minnesota, United States, at the junction of Interstate 35 and Minnesota State Highway 33. Part of the city lies within the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation and serves as one of the reservation's three admi ...

, accessdate = 2020-06-29 , url-status = live , quote = The Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training or POST is collaborating with Minnesota State. In January, POST started to review processes after changes in leadership. {{cite news , url = https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-state-colleges-to-review-law-enforcement-training-after-floyd-s-killing/571319522/ , title = Minnesota State colleges to review law enforcement training in response to George Floyd's killing , work =

, author = Ryan Faircloth , date = 2020-06-17 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20200618025128/https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-state-colleges-to-review-law-enforcement-training-after-floyd-s-killing/571319522/ , archivedate = 2020-06-18 , accessdate = 2020-06-29 , url-status = live , quote = Minnesota State's police officer programs are certified by the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST). System law enforcement programs include training on skills such as firearm safety, SWAT, interrogation, crime scene investigation and threat assessment. {{cite news , url = https://www.twincities.com/2020/06/17/mn-policing-changes-hamline-professors-legislature/ , title = Hamline professors: If they want to improve policing in Minnesota, legislators need to know this , work = Twincities Pioneer Press , author1 = Shelly Schaefer , author2 = Jillian Peterson , author3 = Sarah Greenman , author4 = Gina Erickson , date = 2020-06-17 , archiveurl = , archivedate = , accessdate = 2020-06-29 , url-status = live , quote = Minnesota is one of the few states that requires a post-secondary degree to become a peace officer. Individuals seeking a career in law enforcement can choose to attend one of the 30 Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) accredited education programs. The board certifies that these schools are covering the 410 learning objectives adopted by the MN POST Board. {{cite news , url = https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-licensing-board-to-review-four-ex-officers-roles-in-george-floyd-killing/571300012/ , title = Minnesota licensing board to review four ex-officers' roles in George Floyd killing: POST Board has the power to revoke the four former Mpls. cops' licenses. , work =

, author = Greg Stanley , date = 2020-06-17 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20200618030832/https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-licensing-board-to-review-four-ex-officers-roles-in-george-floyd-killing/571300012/ , archivedate = 2020-06-18 , accessdate = 2020-06-24 , url-status = live , quote = While all four officers who have been charged in the killing of Floyd were fired from the Minneapolis Police Department, they are still licensed Minnesota peace officers. Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training

Inquiry into the July 2016 killing of Philando Castile

Star Tribune investigative reporting of October 2017

Inquiry into the May 2020 murder of George Floyd

Scholarly analysis

Future

See also

References