To Change Police Practices, A Push For Liability Insurance In Minneapolis

NPR reports:

When cities settle cases of inappropriate or illegal force by police officers, they pay — a lot. Chicago alone has paid out more than half a billion dollars since 2004.

Yet some advocates say all those payouts haven't had much of an effect on policing practices.

In Minneapolis, longtime 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.


Dave Bicking, also a member of the ballot campaign, says the beauty of this scheme is that bad cops would pay more; the worse the track record, the more expensive the premium.

"We have one officer [in Minneapolis] who's had five significant settlements against him just in a year and a half," Bicking says. "Someone like that could never, ever buy insurance. They'd have to charge him $60[000]-$70,000 a year. That officer would be gone."

An interesting idea.