This week, lawmakers to scrutinize disbanded gang strike force

Several Minnesota House and Senate committees will take a closer look this week at the disbanded Metro Gang Strike Force.

Wednesday's joint hearing at the State Capitol follows last week's report from a special review panel, that found "appalling and outrageous" misconduct within the Metro Gang Strike Force. The allegations include members taking seized property for their personal use and interrogations of people not connected to gangs.

DFL Senator Linda Higgins of Minneapolis, chair of the Senate Public Safety Budget Division, says a few of the strike force members were out of control.

"It's so disturbing. And I think that the public, when they find out more of the details, will be really upset about this," she said. "Things like the saturation details, where it was mostly people of color that they were stopping. It was mostly people of color whose money they took, that they harassed...I don't even know how to say how appalling I think that action is."

Higgins says she expects proposals next session to tighten up the state's forfeiture and seizure laws.