St. Paul Chief Releases Stop Video, Demands Apology from Politician Claiming Racial Profiling

The St. Paul (MN) Police Department has released bodycam footage taken during a traffic stop with state Rep. John Thompson that raises questions over his claim that he was pulled over for "driving while Black."

The officer asks Thompson for proof of insurance in the video, which the politician says is on his phone and notes that he is a state representative in the district. The officer asks about his Wisconsin driver’s license and returns to his vehicle for roughly 14 minutes, Fox News reports. 

"You're suspended in Minnesota," the officer says after returning to Thompson’s car. 

The state legislator shakes his head no, prompting the officer to say, "That's what the computer says. If it's wrong, you'll have to deal with DVS [the Department of Vehicle Services]."

Thompson then asks in the video why he was pulled over, which the officer said was due to his car having "No front plate, and the way you took off from the light back there."

Thompson accused the officer of racial profiling.

The bodycam footage was released after St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell demanded an apology from Thompson for accusing the officer of racially profiling him. 

"These aren’t accusations I take lightly, so I looked into the traffic stop, watched the body worn camera footage and spoke to the sergeant," Axtell wrote in a Facebook post on Friday . "This stop, made at about 1:20 in the morning, had absolutely nothing to do with the driver's race."