'It Has to Stop': Minnesota Police Chief Says Off-Duty Cops Racially Profiled by ICE
"Every one of these individuals is a person of color," said Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley—whose own department has been criticized for racial policing.
A Minnesota police chief said Tuesday that off-duty officers are being racially profiled by federal immigration agents deployed as part of US President Donald Trump's deadly anti-immigrant blitz targeting Democrat-led cities.
"Immigration enforcement is necessary for national security and for local security," Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley told reporters while flanked by other area police chiefs. "But how it's done is extremely important."
Bruley said that his department has "a long history of working exceptionally well" with "federal partners" including US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
"With that said, recently, these last two weeks, we, the law enforcement community, have been receiving endless complaints about civil rights violations in our streets from US citizens," Bruley continued. "What we're hearing is they're being stopped in traffic stops or on the street with no cause."
"We started hearing from our police officers the same complaints as they fell victim to this while off duty," the chief said. "Every one of these individuals is a person of color."
"In Brooklyn Park, one particular officer who shared her story with me was stopped as she passed ICE going down the roadway," Bruley continued. "They demanded her paperwork, [but] she is a US citizen, and clearly would not have any paperwork. When she became concerned about the rhetoric and the way she was being treated she pulled out her phone in an attempt to record the incident. The phone was knocked out of her hands."
The ICE agent "had their gun drawn during this interaction, and after the officer became so concerned, they were forced to identify themself as a Brooklyn Park police officer in hopes of... deescalating the incident," he said. "The agents then immediately left after hearing this."
"I wish I could tell you that this was an isolated incident," Bruley added. "In fact, many of the chiefs standing behind me have similar incidents with their off-duty officers."
"We know that our officers know what the Constitution is, they know what right and wrong is, and they know when people are being targeted," the chief claimed. "It has to stop."
A 2021 report prepared for the city of Brooklyn Park found serious concerns about racial disparities in traffic stops and other police interactions.
"Overall, some residents have had experiences in which police treated them with respect and dignity, and effectively deescalated stressful situations," the report states. "Others have had the opposite experience and have been threatened or intimidated by police. Themes also emerged about racial profiling and wrongful arrest that point to concerns of racism in the department."
Approximately 10 miles south of Brooklyn Park in Minneapolis, a US Department of Justice probe following the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by former Minneapolis Police Department officer Derek Chauvin found a "pattern or practice of conduct in violation of the US Constitution and federal law" among MPD personnel.
This included excessive force, violation of protesters' First Amendment rights, and illegal discrimination against Black and Indigenous people. A 2022 Minnesota Department of Human Rights investigation also concluded that MPD engaged in a pattern of "discriminatory, race-based policing."
Bruley's remarks came as the Trump administration continued its deadly crackdown on undocumented immigrants and others suspected of being in the United States without authorization.
Last week, the ACLU filed a class action lawsuit aimed at ending “a startling pattern of abuse spearheaded by the Department of Homeland Security that is fundamentally altering civic life in the Twin Cities and the state of Minnesota.”
As public outrage over ICE's heavy-handed tactics mounts after an agent shot and killed Renee Good earlier this month in Minneapolis, Trump is threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act, and the Department of Defense has placed 1,500 active duty military troops on standby for possible deployment to Minnesota.
Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey—who famously told ICE to "get the fuck out" of the city after Good's killing and is among state and local officials subpoenaed by the DOJ Tuesday—said Sunday that Trump's threats are "clearly designed to intimidate."
"We're not going to be intimidated," Frey added.
