What We Do

“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” – Ida B. Wells

An independent review of police killing cases is necessary. In the past, Minnesota police agencies often investigated themselves. Now, a state-wide law enforcement agency investigates these cases and local county attorneys, both of whom need to maintain a non-adversarial relationship with local law enforcement agencies, have exonerated officers who kill.

Our years of work on these cases have uncovered a pattern of untested evidence, biased interviewing techniques, and an unwillingness of prosecutors to charge officers for unauthorized use of deadly force.

In the process of official investigations, families are rarely told what truly happened in their loved ones’ final moments. As we talked about earlier, it is a struggle for families to merely access the police reports, photos, body-camera videos, and even autopsy reports of their loved ones’ death. Because of this, the burden falls on the families to fight to get the data and try to piece together the truth of what happened, all while grieving their loss.

Because of this, the burden falls on the families to fight to get the data and try to piece together the truth of what happened, all while grieving their loss.

The reality is, these cases are time-consuming and costly. Each reinvestigation takes at least a year to complete. Often experts, such as forensic pathologists, scene reconstructionists, and use-of-force witnesses, are needed to review the evidence and they can cost thousands of dollars.

Our overarching goal as a workgroup is to get the authentic narrative of police killings out to the public. For every police killing,  there’s a conventional narrative that is spread by the police and the county attorney to avoid holding law enforcement officers accountable. Despite this, we know that “the way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”

The RWG team reviews all of the documents and evidence to find discrepancies in the conventional narrative. Investigation materials may include:

• 911 call(s)
• radio communications
• computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) activity
• body-worn camera videos
• squad camera videos 
• officer interviews
• witness interviews 
• physical evidence 
• officer training records
• policies and procedures
• crime scene sketches
• crime scene photos 
• crime scene videos
• state and local governing laws
• investigative policies
• autopsy reports

We also do on our own:

• witness interviews 
• crime scene photographs 
• measurements
• reenactments 
• history of police department or agency 

Want to support our Work?

Donate to support the Reinvestigation Workgroup below. Your contributions will go towards costs such as data request charges and forensic expert witness fees.