MINNEAPOLIS — Police are obligated to intervene if a colleague uses unnecessary force or puts someone in danger, a Minneapolis police inspector and longtime academy instructor testified Thursday in the St. Paul federal trial of three ex-Minneapolis officers in the death of George Floyd.
Inspector Katie Blackwell was the first Minneapolis police officer to testify in the civil rights trial of Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, who stand accused of ignoring their duty to provide aid while fellow officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes as he pleaded for his life before falling unconscious and dying in May 2020.
Blackwell said the department put an official policy in place in 2016 establishing the duty to intervene, which includes a "medical component" mandating officers prioritize "sanctity of life" in all circumstances.
