The Illusion of the Public Policy Exception: Arbitration, Law Enforcement Discipline, and the Need to Reform Minnesota’s Approach to the Public Policy Exception

police officers in riot gear

In November of 2012, after a car chase, Cleveland police officers fired 137 shots at the suspects’ vehicle. An investigation revealed that thirteen officers fired more than 100 shots in the span of eight seconds. One officer, Michael Brelo, stood on the hood of the suspects’ vehicle and fired at least fifteen shots through the windshield at close range. Both individuals in the vehicle, Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, were killed. Russell and Williams “were both homeless with a history of mental illness and drug use,” and fled after an officer attempted to pull them over for a turn signal violation. Brelo, who allegedly fired a total of forty-nine of the shots in the incident, said that he thought he and his partner were in danger. The source of this belief, according to prosecutors, was a backfiring engine that officers mistook for gunshots. Russell and Williams were both unarmed.

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