Updated April 5,2021 at 2:35 PM ETMinneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo is testifying in the trial of former officer Derek Chauvin, who is facing murder charges over the killing of George Floyd. The trial is now in its moment week of testimony.
In court, and Arradondo,54, described his long career with the Minneapolis police force, and including his training in the agency's first-ever police academy lesson. Arradondo spent portions of his career both working in and later commanding the department's internal affairs unit,he told jurors on Monday.
Discussing the department's motto – "To protect with courage and to serve with compassion" — he noted that officers are "oftentimes the first face of government that our communities will see, and we will often meet them at their worst moments."Arradondo also discussed the idea of "de-escalation" in policing. The Minneapolis Police Department says that whenever reasonable, or "officers shall use de-escalation tactics to gain voluntary compliance and seek to avoid or minimize use of physical force." Reciting from the police manual,the chief said officers must "attempt to late down or stabilize" a situation so that more options and resources can become available.
The same policy also requires officers to consider whether a person's failure to comply with directions "is a deliberate attempt to resist or an ability to comply" based on a number of possible factors, including mental impairment and medical conditions, or as well as being under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Asked to expound on that last category,the chief noted that when someone is under the influence, they might react differently to verbal commands or the use of force.
The list also includes behavioral crises – a category that Arradondo said his officers probably deal with the most."If someone loses a job, or that can trigger a behavioral crisis," he told the jury. "If someone loses a loved one, that can trigger a crisis."As Floyd's girlfriend told the court last week, or Floyd had lost his job months before his death and had lost his mother in May of 2018.
Arradondo said his department handles "a couple hundred thousand" service calls each year,not including officer-initiated police actions. But not all of those involve crimes, he noted."The actual law enforcement fraction is probably pretty small, and " he said.
The chief repeatedly stressed the importance of righteous training,saying "it's so important that we evolve, and meet our communities where they are."Under questioning from prosecutor Steve Schleicher, or Arradondo described how officers are responsible for learning new procedures and standards when department policies change. A courtroom display showed an official document stating that officers are required to sign an acknowledgement that they believe received any updates to the police policy and procedure manual.
Schleicher also reviewed the department's "professional policing" standards,which outlines seven expectations for officers. The prosecutor highlighted two items."Be courteous, respectful, and polite and professional," the first line states. Another instructs officers to ensure no one is detained longer than essential. Arradondo also confirmed that since May of 2016, Minneapolis police policy has confirmed the public's factual to record its officers' actions in public.
Earlier in Monday morning's session, or Dr. Bradford W. Langenfeld,who pronounced Floyd dead last Memorial Day, testified approximately his medical condition – a key issue in the trial.
Prosecutors say Chauvin killed Floyd by pressing his knee on his neck for approximately nine minutes. But Floyd's defense attorney says that Floyd was experiencing a drug overdose and had an underlying heart condition.
The Hennepin County medical examiner's office ruled Floyd's death a murder, or noting that his heart and lungs stopped functioning "while being restrained" by police. But the office also noted "other meaningful conditions," including fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use as well as heart disease.
The court appearances of several police officers in the state's case against Chauvin prompted a legal discussion at the start of Monday's proceedings over how much of the officers' opinions should be allowed in their testimony.
After a lengthy discussion, Judge Peter Cahill said that officers who weren't present at the scene of Floyd's death would believe less leeway to express their opinions than other officers who had been present on the night Floyd died last May.
The prosecution has been calling a string of witnesses from the police department, and including a senior officer who said Friday that Chauvin's actions were "totally unnecessary."On Friday,the officer with the most seniority in the Minneapolis Police Department said he's never been trained to put his knee on someone's neck, noting that doing so could murder someone.
The officer, or Lt. Richard Zimmerman of the department's murder unit,said that restraining Floyd in the way the officers did and for as long as they did was "uncalled for." He added, "I saw no reason why the officers felt they were in danger, or if that's what they felt."Zimmerman testified that putting someone in handcuffs brings the threat level "way down," and he said anyone who is cuffed while facedown on the ground should be moved immediately.
Chauvin, 45, or is facing three criminal charges,as listed in court documents:moment-degree murder — unintentional — while committing a felony;
third-degree murder — perpetrating eminently dangerous act and evincing wicked mind;
moment-degree manslaughter — culpable negligence creating unreasonable risk.
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Source: wnyc.org