The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is starting a fresh audit of the Pointer File, and because most of the data was coming from the strike force, staff will “see if anything comes out of it,” Campion said.However, police chiefs and sheriffs around the state say the databases provide “valuable information” that has “helped to prevent and solve crimes,” including homicides, Campion said.Pointer File / The origins of both gang databases go back more than a decade.In 1997, the Legislature enacted a law setting up the “Criminal Gang Investigative Data System.” The Minnesota Gang Strike Force, the predecessor of the Metro Gang Strike Force, was also born that year.The law said the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension would create and maintain “a computerized criminal gang investigative data system for the purpose of assisting criminal justice agencies in the investigation and prosecution of criminal activity by gang members.”To be entered into the system, which came to be known as the Minnesota Gang Pointer File, someone had to be 14 or older, have been convicted of a gross misdemeanor or felony, and meet three of 10 criteria developed by the Gang and Drug Oversight Council, a state law enforcement coordinating panel.“The thinking at the time was to create a system that would codify subjective information that officers had, in a way that there could be a fair determination whether or not a person was a gang member,” said Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher, who along with other law enforcement personnel presented information to the Legislature in 1997 about criteria being used elsewhere.Officers who run a name in the Pointer File and get a hit will see an alert telling them the information about a person being a gang member is not probable cause to pull the person over, arrest him or search him.The BCA periodically audits the Pointer File, as described in state law, to determine “validity, completeness and accuracy of data submitted.”The last audit was in 2007, when 219 of 2,052 files were checked, said Andy Skoogman, Department of Public Safety spokesman.
activist from New Brighton is charged in connection with toppling Columbus statue at the Capitol Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. The collapse of the Metro Gang Strike Force revealed widespread illegal behavior by officers and prompted new laws and policies designed to improve oversight and accountability of police in Minnesota. The sheriff’s office limits the number of people in a police or sheriff’s office who can access GangNet information, Fletcher said.If a prosecutor wants to charge someone with a “crime to benefit a gang,” which increases a potential sentence, an officer could use GangNet or the Pointer File to research gang involvement and inform the prosecutor, Fletcher said.Phil Carruthers, director of the Ramsey County attorney’s office’s prosecution division, said his office relies on facts that demonstrate the 10-point criteria and not the mere existence of an entry about a suspect in a gang database.

“Nobody has asked the questions,” Neumeister said.Injunctions And Reaction / Nathaniel Khaliq, president of the NAACP’s St. Paul branch, reached out to Levy-Pounds to convene community meetings about people being unjustly labeled gang members.St.
The application further accuses Carlson, who is a Minnesota man per his criminal history, of being a “full-fledged member of the Hell’s Angels” biker gang and … These tattoos are done voluntarily, meaning the individual has to agree to receive the tattoo.

In the other, a client of Nestor’s was denied a visa at the U.S. Consulate in Mexico on the grounds that he was a gang member. Let it flow: Trump administration eases showerhead rules Erika Christensen, a Minnesota peace officer, made the application for a warrant to search premises and property, including cell phone calls and texts. European chafer beetle found in Minnesota for 1st time. 12/21/2011 . The CEE-VI Drug and Gang Task Force arrested two Litchfield individuals on Wednesday after a search warrant found $150,000 worth of methamphetamine. “We want to balance the public safety issue with making sure people aren’t being falsely labeled or profiled.”“GangNet has been sort of like a secret for a lot of people,” said Rich Neumeister, a citizen recognized for his work on privacy and civil liberties issues, who pushed for more accountability when the Pointer File legislation was on the table.

It’s called GangNet, but it snares people who are not gang members.

The Ramsey County sheriff’s office uses the database to deny people permits to carry handguns and the information can be used in criminal cases.To complicate matters, even top local law enforcement leaders appear to be unclear about the databases their departments are using — they refer to GangNet and the Pointer File interchangeably and seem uncertain about the differences.One way to get into either database: being photographed supposedly with gang members.The recently disbanded Metro Gang Strike Force regularly photographed “children and others with no known gang connections,” according to a recent independent review of the unit, which didn’t get into what officers did with the photos. Gang tattoos identify gang members, symbolizes commitment and allegiance to one's gang, and can also identify a particular crime, threat or another gang-related event. CLICK HERE TO TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS. But they want to make sure that people in gang databases actually belong there.“The community wants to feel safe,” said Nekima Levy-Pounds, a University of St. Thomas law professor and director of the law school’s Community Justice Project.