Created: February 17, 2021 02:24 PM
As federal relief money flowed into local governments to help cover the costs of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, several police departments in Minnesota spent emergency funding on riot gear, Tasers, body cameras and other "civil unrest equipment."
5 INVESTIGATES identified the purchases in a review of more than 1,400 spending reports from cities, towns and counties, which detailed their use of funding received through the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Those expenses could potentially be flagged during upcoming audits since the federal government made it clear that such funding could only be used to cover "expenditures due to the public health emergency."