DULUTH – A retired Duluth police lieutenant has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the city of Duluth, claiming he was forced out after reporting suspected misconduct and derogatory remarks fellow officers made about citizens.
A suit filed March 1 by David Drozdowski also alleges that police leaders minimized use-of-force incidents and officer behavior surrounding citizen deaths by suicide, and ignored racist and sexist remarks made by members of the Lake Superior Violent Offender Task Force.
A spokeswoman for the city of Duluth said it does not comment on active litigation.
As part of the lawsuit, Drozdowski alleges that an officer who fired less-lethal projectiles twice into occupied vehicles was reprimanded with a letter, which the complaint describes as the lowest form of punishment for actions the department’s use-of-force coordinator said were “excessive.”
He also alleges two incidents related to suicides: In one, members of the Violent Offender Task Force turned on a live camera feed of a man threatening to jump from a parking ramp, making jokes and “treating the situation as entertainment,” the lawsuit reports.
In another, an officer who was not assigned to a suicide call took a photo of the dead body and shared it with other officers via a social media group called “Operation Rip and Tear,” intended for sharing disturbing on-the-job footage. The officer received a letter of reprimand, the lawsuit claims.
The suit claims Police Chief Mike Ceynowa and Mayor...
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