Minnesota eyes changes to police-involved deaths

Minnesota's county attorneys want to give the state attorney general the authority to handle all cases of police-involved deaths. The Minnesota County Attorneys Association voted Thursday in transferring that power during an emergency meeting, which included Attorney General Keith Ellison. The attorney general is leading the state's case against the four police officers involved in George Floyd's death instead of the Hennepin County Attorney's Office.

State lawmakers would need to pass legislation during this month's special session to give the attorney general the ongoing authority. The county attorneys are also calling on the Legislature to provide additional funding to the state Attorney General's Office and create a unit within Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to investigate police killings of civilians.

"If this is the path the Legislature and governor choose to take, my office will accept the responsibility," Ellison said. "But it must come with resources sufficient to do the job thoroughly and to do justice in the way Minnesotans have a right to expect." Ellison is one of 18 Democratic attorneys general who are asking Congress to grant their offices "clear statutory authority under federal law" to investigate "unconstitutional policing by local police departments" in their respective states, the Star Tribune reported..

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