A panel of politicians is trying to get to the bottom of what went wrong with Minnesota’s Metro Gang Strike Force, which seized money and property from people never accused of a crime – and then took the property for personal use, reports the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The joint legislative panel convened at the Capitol to review a pair of reports that say some officers of the now-defunct Metro Gang Strike Force committed behavior that was “shocking” and listed a litany of abuses.
It also listed some valuable property that it appeared task force officers took from people in cases that resulted in no criminal charges, and it said that some of the officers took the property home for personal use or sold it to friends and relatives. “The panel was struck by the number of large-screen and flat-screen televisions, along with electronics and computer equipment, that officers seized in case after case,” said the report, written by former federal prosecutor Andrew Luger and retired FBI agent John Egelhof.