Head of Minnesota police chiefs association: Police not trained in hold used on George Floyd

The executive director of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police said Sunday that the hold used on George Floyd in Minneapolis was contrary to police training.

“I think there’s a national narrative that police officers in Minnesota are being trained in the technique that Derek Chauvin used and that is simply not the case, it is the furthest from the truth that exists,” Andy Skoogman said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“We did condemn the actions of the officer, not only the technique used by Derek Chauvin but the lack of empathy shown by the other officers on the scene,” he added. “We did commend Chief Medaria Arradondo from Minneapolis for his quick actions in terminating those officers … Maybe lay folks don’t understand but the ability to terminate an officer that quickly is unprecedented, it doesn’t happen very much.”

{mosads}Floyd died after former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin kneeled with a knee on Floyd’s neck for several minutes.

Fox News’ Chris Wallace pressed Skoogman on whether, since a police report describes Floyd as “resisting arrest,” Chauvin would ever have been dismissed or arrested without video of the incident.

“I believe cell phone videos are game changers… they weed out the bad apples,” Skoogman conceded. “Video is definitely the key in this case as it is in so many other cases in this day and age.”

Skoogman also described working groups the chiefs of police have engaged in over the past several years and whether they can deliver effective reforms.

“What we’re trying to do is, I think we need to continue to work together, we have to continue the training that we put together in Minnesota and across the country on implicit bias,” he said. “Training isn’t everything but it’s certainly a start.”

Skoogman also called on reform to the arbitration process for dismissal of police officers. “We have officers that violate public policy, they have a pattern of doing that, and chiefs and sheriffs try to fire them and our courts reinstate those jobs,” he said.