Bob Kroll (police officer)

Kroll joined the Minneapolis Police Department in 1989.[1] He was on the department's SWAT team for 15 years, and served in the vice unit,[6] public housing unit, and as head of the domestic violence unit.[1] He was promoted to sergeant in 1994,[7] elected to the board of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis in 1996[6] and named vice president in 2006.[8] He won his first two-year term as president of the union in May 2015.[1][6] As head of the federation and its approximately 800 members,[9] Kroll advocates for additional police officers[10] and additional autonomy of the police.[11]

Over his career, Kroll has been involved in three officer shootings.[5] By 2015, Kroll had accumulated 20 internal affairs complaints,[6] only three of which were disciplined,[5] including one that led to his demotion.[8] In 1994, Kroll received a five-day suspension for excessive use of force that was later overturned.[12] A 1995 lawsuit against Kroll in federal court alleged that he had used racial slurs while beating, choking and kicking a 15-year-old multi-racial boy.[13] Kroll oversaw a botched Emergency Response Unit drug raid in 1996 where an officer was shot by friendly fire.[7] During a no-knock raid on an elderly couple's residence[6] in September 2002, Kroll was among several officers accused of using excessive force.[12] A lawsuit regarding the incident was settled for $60,000.[7] In March 2003 Kroll was involuntarily demoted for ethical violations. He had his rank reinstated three months later.[12][7] A City of Minneapolis attorney recommended settling a lawsuit for $15,000 stemming from Kroll kicking and beating a suspect at an impound lot in February 2004.[7]

While off-duty in May 2004, Kroll and another officer assaulted several people at an art crawl in northeast Minneapolis.[7] After a man allegedly bumped up against their vehicle, Kroll and the other officer, dressed in plain clothes, punched him, throwing him on the sidewalk and hitting his head on the ground. They taunted bystanders and then punched the man's sister and kicked another person in the face.[7] A complaint about the incident was sustained by the Civilian Review Authority and Kroll was suspended for 20 days.[14][13] One month later,[13] during a departmental ethics class,[7] Kroll said that then-Congressman Keith Ellison, a Muslim, was a terrorist.[8] He also used a homophobic slur against a gay staffer to mayor R. T. Rybak, resulting in his suspension.[6]

In 2007, Kroll was named multiple times in a racial discrimination lawsuit brought against the city of Minneapolis by five black officers, including current MPD Chief Medaria Arradondo. The lawsuit described Kroll as having "a history of discriminatory attitudes and conduct,"[15] saying that he wore a motorcycle jacket that had a white power patch.[14] The lawsuit also alleged that Kroll was racially discriminatory in overtime assignments following the I-35W bridge collapse.[15] According to Deputy Chief Art Knight, Kroll subscribes to the "broken windows" theory of policing.[1]

After the shooting of Jamar Clark in 2015, Kroll contradicted witness statements that Clark was handcuffed at the moment of the shooting, saying he was actively resisting arrest and tried to take the weapon of one of the officers.[16] He referred to the Black Lives Matter movement as a "terrorist organization."[1] Kroll was also critical of the responses of then-mayor Betsy Hodges and MPD Chief Janeé Harteau, who said that Kroll's views were "not consistent with 21st-century policing."[6]

In 2016, after officers walked off a job at a Minnesota Lynx game over jerseys that said "Black Lives Matter," Kroll said that he commended the four officers, saying that Lynx games had "such a pathetic draw."[17] An email from police chief Harteau to Kroll was leaked to the press in July 2016. In the email, Harteau orders Kroll to only wear his police uniform for MPD-sanctioned purposes, including in his capacity as union representative.[18]

During the grand jury investigation of the shooting of Justine Damond in 2018, Kroll challenged Hennepin County Attorney Michael O. Freeman's efforts to gather testimony from officers.[19] Later that year, Kroll pushed back against requirements that MPD squad cars have placards informing immigrants of their rights.[20]

In 2019, following a ban on "warrior-style" training for police officers by mayor Jacob Frey, Kroll called the directive unlawful and announced that the union would offer free warrior-style training for officers as long as Frey remains in office.[21][4]

Following the death of George Floyd in May 2020, Kroll characterized Floyd as a "violent criminal" and called the protests a "terrorist movement."[5] Kroll came under intense criticism in the wake of his comments.[14][22] Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy criticized Kroll in June 2020 for "a long history of bigoted remarks and complaints of violence made against him" toward black residents. McCarthy, Education Minnesota (the state's teachers union), and former Minneapolis Chief of Police Janeé Harteau called for Kroll's resignation. Harteau said Kroll's behavior during the George Floyd protests was a "disgrace to the badge."[23] Former mayor Rybak called Kroll "overtly racist" and "a cancer on this police department, on this city."[24] The Metropolitan Urban Indian Directors Group, a coalition of 30 American Indian organizations, called for Kroll's termination.[25] The Minnesota Nurses Association also called for his resignation.[26] Minnesota House of Representatives speaker Melissa Hortman and Minneapolis City Council member Steve Fletcher also called on Kroll to resign.[27][28]

Kroll supports and endorses[1] President Donald Trump[29] including speaking at a Trump rally in Minneapolis[4] and selling "Cops for Trump" shirts.[30][31] Kroll appeared on Fox News' Fox & Friends to speak about violent crime and the Minneapolis City Council.[32] In a controversial letter to police federation members made public June 1, 2020, Kroll attacked "politicians on the left" and the "liberal media" and stated that in a phone meeting with Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, he had provided Gazelka with "a detailed plan of action including a range of 2000 to 3000 National Guard, their deployment allocations throughout our city and St. Paul," and that "the Senate was going to try and run the actions that the governor has displayed he is clearly incompetent to do."[33][34] The remark was perceived as political by at least the City Pages newsweekly as the Governor, Tim Walz, is both a Democrat and a 24-year veteran of the Minnesota National Guard, while Gazelka is Minnesota's highest-ranking elected Republican office holder.[33] (The governor is the state official who may "call the National Guard into action during local or statewide emergencies".)[35]

On June 1, 2020, Libor Jany of the Star Tribune, published a letter Kroll wrote to fellow union members, in which he called the Black Lives Matter a "terrorist group".[14][36]

Kroll grew up on the East Side of Saint Paul, Minnesota.[1] His father was in a union.[6] He is married to Liz Collin, a news anchor for ViacomCBS–owned CBS station WCCO-TV, which is widely thought of as a conflict of interest.[37]

Kroll is a member of City Heat, a police motorcycle club[6] whose members have "openly displayed white supremacist symbols" according to the Anti-Defamation League.[38] During a bar fight when he was off-duty, Kroll had part of his ear bitten off.[1]