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Mayor Frey Says MPD Will Comply With Officer Training Policy

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Mayor Jacob Frey and the Minneapolis Police Federation still appear to be at odds over so-called "warrior" training.

Frey says that the Minneapolis Police Department will be compliant with the policy for training officers, which comes after Frey's banning of "fear-based, warrior style" training for Minneapolis police. Frey added that he understands that compliance from the department does not imply endorsement thereof.

However, the union later said that's not entirely true.

Frey's statement comes after the union openly defied the mayor's policy, agreeing to a partnership with an organization called "Law Officer." While the Mayor has called this warrior training fear-based, "Law Officer" says it focuses on skills like survival, leadership, and deescalation.

Frey says on Thursday an agreement was reached with the union that any type of "use of force" or "de-escalation" training first needs to be reviewed and approved by police administration, specifically Chief Medaria Arradondo. Any officer who doesn't comply could be disciplined.

"They'll review them, he'll make a determination, and that determination will be respected," Frey said. "It doesn't matter what you call the training. It doesn't matter what people say in the training. The training needs to be reviewed, it needs to be authorized, and then we will go from there."

On Friday afternoon, the police federation once again countered. In a statement, they said they met with Arradondo and agreed not to discipline officers who take training during off-duty time, until the policy was revised.

The statement went on to say they will be offering police training that focuses on defending others in a valiant, wise and safe manner, and that the mayor and city council are invited: "We believe that if they attend this training, they would have an understanding of training they are labeling as 'warrior or fear-based' training.

Mayor Frey's office released this statement early Friday evening:

Pre-ordaining the training as approved would render a review unnecessary and meaningless. Lieutenant Bob Kroll's characterization and understanding of yesterday's meeting is entirely inconsistent with the conversations that Mayor Frey had with Lt. Kroll. Similarly, it does not align with information he received from the Minneapolis Police Department.

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