Minneapolis police records shed light on 2014 military training

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Despite the Navy's wishes for a low-profile event, the fact that training missions occurred over residential areas spurred more public attention and media coverage than in 2012. That coverage registered a high level of public concern about the safety and implications of the operation, and also generated a strong response from city officials who had been kept out of the communications loop. Minneapolis City Council Member Blong Yang was quoted on KSTP TV as saying that the Minneapolis City Council was "not notified of the event." Likewise, Council Member Cam Gordon told the City Pages newspaper that he felt "like an idiot" for being unable to respond to constituent questions with specific information. In the aftermath of the event, Council Member Yang called for public hearings. MPD records indicate that inquiries had also commenced within the police department itself. An August 29, 2014 e-mail from MPD's Tony Schoenberger to SWAT chief Robert Skoro indicates that Chief Harteau had commissioned a "review" of events surrounding the training exercise. Schoenberger's message states that the review "is not an investigation and there is no allegation of misconduct or inappropriate action by anyone involved." Instead, he notes that the intention of the review is for the Chief to "better and more thoroughly understand the role of MPD in this training."

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In August of 2014, military helicopters flew low over residential neighborhoods of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, engaged in a series of night-time training exercises. The exercises involved the Naval Warfare Development Group - a "special forces" component of the U.S. Navy - and were aimed at enhancing urban combat tactics. Just as they had two years earlier, military personnel had come to the Twin Cities to conduct counter-terrorism training operations in an urban environment. And just as before, those operations commenced with little advance notice to the public.

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The presence of low-flying, black helicopters was the most obvious sign to the public that military training was underway, but records show that Naval exercises had already been occurring a week previous to this. Naval forces had commenced ground operations on August 11th, independent of aerial support. Helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft arrived on August 17th, and the "full mission profile" of combined air-ground operations ran from August 18 to 21.

This is quite straight forward, the focus of the exercises alarming.

Minneapolis police records shed light on 2014 military training