Activists in Minneapolis are hoping to get the issue of liability insurance for police on the ballot this fall in Minnesota.
“[L]ongtime activist Michelle Gross says when cities pay damages, individual police officers often aren't held accountable, which means they're not likely to change their behavior. That's why she and a group calling itself the Committee for Professional Policing are now pushing a completely different approach.”
“"We are working to get a measure on the ballot that would require police officers to carry professional liability insurance," she says.”
“Some officers already carry liability insurance, on a voluntary basis. Gross' group wants to make it a condition of employment in Minneapolis. Their proposal would have the city cover the cost of basic insurance, but any premium increases due to misconduct would be the officer's responsibility.”
Critics, of course, aren’t sure if the ploy will work. That’s to be expected, but since there are no police departments in the U.S. that currently require liability insurance for officers, the only real way to know for sure is for the effort to be implemented.
Gross and her comrades hope the measure will lead to a change in police behavior. The other tangible benefit would be the cost of savings to municipalities. As noted in the NPR article, the city of Chicago, for example, has paid out half a billion dollars in settlements since 2004.
Hopefully, activists in other cities will follow suit with campaigns for accountability similar to Gross and others. The Chicago Reporter, a media organization, maintains a website that lists not only the monies paid out by police misconduct but the names of the offending officers. In California, an effort towards creating transparency around police misconduct complaints may become a ballot measure.
ALL of these efforts should be applauded, supported and, hopefully, replicated elsewhere.