Assaults on Minnesota police officers reached a record high for a second year in a row last year, according to a new state report.
At the same time, use-of-force incidents decreased, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s annual “Uniform Crime Report” shows.
According to the report, there were a total of 900 assault incidents in 2021 with 1,112 officers assaulted. That’s a 35 percent increase over 2020, when a record 667 incidents were reported involving 794 officers.
In 2019, there were 413 total police assault incidents, meaning assaults on law enforcement have more than doubled in two years.
But use-of-force incidents actually decreased between 2020 and 2021, from 45 to 30. There were 37 incidents in 2019. Officer-involved shootings increased from 25 to 31 between 2019 and 2020 but dropped to 24 last year.
White people were involved in 17 use-of-force incidents last year, compared to eight black Minnesotans.
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Photo “Protester and Minneapolis Police Officer” by Lorie Shaull. CC BY-SA 2.0.
