Analysis: Ex-Minneapolis cops rack up $26M in payouts amid surge in PTSD claims

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Because the homicide of George Floyd, a whole lot of Minneapolis law enforcement officials have left the power whereas claiming post-traumatic stress dysfunction to hunt incapacity advantages. 

No less than 155 officers have obtained employee’s compensation settlements totaling almost $26 million, in response to a FOX 9 Investigators evaluation of metropolis council minutes and police information. Lots of those self same officers have questionable histories of misconduct. 

Hogtied and ‘disinterested’

Surveillance video obtained by the FOX 9 Investigators depicts a troubling incident involving now-former MPD Sgt. Joseph Will. The video reveals an April 2017 incident the place two rookie cops tried to restrain a DWI suspect who was in custody after the person turned agitated and started hitting his head in opposition to the wall.

The 2 inexperienced officers positioned the person right into a “hogtie” along with his arms and ankles sure and tied behind his again. A hogtie is an “unauthorized hobbling method,” which is a maneuver that violated Minneapolis Police coverage. 

Will was the supervisor on-site on the time; nevertheless, surveillance video reveals he did nothing because the unapproved hogtie maneuver was utilized by the rookie cops. Inner affairs investigators famous in disciplinary information that Will appeared “disinterested” along with his arms crossed as he appeared up towards the ceiling earlier than he merely walked away. 

Will was disciplined and suspended for 20 hours with out pay. He’s additionally certainly one of a rising record of now-former MPD officers who’ve lately walked away with a employees’ compensation settlement totaling $160,000. 

FOX 9 evaluation

The FOX 9 Investigators analyzed a whole lot of metropolis council minutes, police and disciplinary information to establish at the least 155 now-former MPD officers who’ve had employees’ compensation settlements authorized. No less than $25.9 million in settlements have been authorized with a median payout of $167,000 per officer.

Lawyer Ron Meuser and his agency, which makes a speciality of PTSD, have shepherded greater than 85% of the settlement instances analyzed by the FOX 9 Investigators. 

His agency declined to take part on this story however Meuser beforehand spoke publicly about law enforcement officials he represents who he says encountered life-changing trauma in the course of the civil unrest. 

“If these people have signs legitimately according to PTSD, it isn’t protected, for my part to have them must be out on the road,” Meuser mentioned weeks after the civil unrest. 

“I can inform you that [the officers] got here from all types of angles and have been at totally different places all through the civil unrest over that point interval,” Meuser mentioned. “A substantial amount of them have been really bodily contained in the third precinct the day that it was deserted by the Metropolis of Minneapolis.”

Questionable histories

Amid the surge of officers claiming PTSD, some have been important of the development. 

“Whereas sure that was a traumatic occasion for some law enforcement officials, the quantity of PTSD from that appears actually extreme,” mentioned Dave Bicking who’s a board member of the watchdog group Communities United In opposition to Police Brutality. 

Of the 155 MPD officers analyzed, at the least 95% of them had some type of misconduct declare filed in opposition to them. About 12% of these officers have been disciplined by MPD brass.

“We do see that lots of these officers have an extended historical past of complaints in opposition to them and even of lawsuit settlements,” Bicking mentioned. “There may be a lot much less historical past of self-discipline as a result of there’s little or no historical past of self-discipline throughout the Minneapolis Police Division to start with.”

Former Officer Dustin Dupre is one instance. He was charged with slashing a lady’s tire exterior a Goal in Cottage Grove in 2017 in an obvious ‘street rage’ incident. 

Dupre managed to maintain his job and final yr walked away from the division with a $175,000 payout. 

Managing threat

Submit-traumatic stress is a medically acknowledged situation. Nonetheless, it wasn’t till 2019 that the Minnesota Legislature handed a regulation making it simpler to get work-related PTSD claims authorized. It eliminated the requirement that first responders present proof it really occurred on the job.

As a way to declare PTSD, an officer should be evaluated by a city-appointed psychologist. Nonetheless, an officer or their lawyer can nonetheless usher in one or two of their very own docs to make an opposing case. The method may be prolonged and convoluted. 

For the Metropolis of Minneapolis, agreeing to a settlement typically comes right down to what’s cheaper – giving a payout or the price of combating it in courtroom. 

“The aim of settlement is all the time to economize for town in the long term, so the hope is even when we’re paying extra money upfront, we gained’t be paying extra over time,” Minneapolis Director of Threat Administration and Claims Emily Colby beforehand mentioned throughout a metropolis council assembly. 

Whereas an officer’s disciplinary document doesn’t issue into whether or not their PTSD declare is authorized or not, CUAPB’s Dave Bicking nonetheless questions the depth of the method. 

“I imagine that town might be combating these claims far more successfully. However it’s inconceivable for us to know, as a result of all of that is protected by attorney-client privilege and it is protected by medical privateness on prime of that,” Bicking mentioned. 

PTSD functions surge

The opposite telling piece to the story is the sheer variety of MPD officers claiming incapacity advantages by means of the state’s retirement system (MPERA). 

A month-by-month assessment of functions reveals a dramatic spike in PTSD claims following the homicide of George Floyd and a large drop in functions in the summertime of 2021. 

About 90% of all incapacity claims made by MPD officers to MPERA have been PTSD incapacity claims versus 10% non-PTSD claims since Jan 2019.