Undercover Minnesota officers suing oversight board have public LinkedIns, discipline and shootings
Undercover Minnesota officers suing oversight board have public LinkedIns, discipline and shootings
Minnesota police group fights release of undercover officers’ names
The police officers have LinkedIn profiles. They have photos posted by their agencies on Facebook or in press releases to celebrate promotions and drug busts. They testify in open court about their arrests. Some of them have been involved in high-profile uses of force, or have been sued for civil damages.
And all 257 of them should have their names hidden from the public, according to court filings by the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association (MPPOA).
That’s because one of their employing agencies, at one point, told the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) that the officers were serving in an undercover capacity. According to the MPPOA, that designation means that any information identifying the officers — including basic information like their names and employers that doesn’t otherwise reveal them to be undercover officers — is exempt from public disclosure under Minnesota law. In its lawsuit, the MPPOA is using the release of this data to argue for more restricted access to disciplinary files, and potentially broader swaths of data containing the names of officers.