A ride-along with Metro Transit Police Chief Ernest Morales III

New chief plans to bring ‘proactive’ policing to the Twin Cities public transit system

As recently as this past February, the Lake Street/Midtown Station was hard to navigate. People congregated inside the station by the elevators, on the stairs and on the platform, often smoking or doing drugs or sometimes just trying to stay warm. 

They were all gone by late March when the MSR visited the station to interview and shadow Metro Transit’s new police chief Ernest Morales III. When asked what happened to those who loitered at the station, Morales responded, “Oh, I don’t know. I can just tell you that this is Metro Transit property. And I took a proactive position where I had my police officers come out here on a daily basis, just to make sure that commuters were utilizing the system as it was designed to be used.”

Morales, who retired from law enforcement after serving in New York for more than 30 years and was once a professional boxer, was hired in January, but was not sworn in until March 22, after he received his license to be a law enforcement officer in Minnesota. 

Accompanied by his wife and daughter during his swearing-in, he pledged to take a more proactive—but not necessarily law-and-order—approach to make the system safer. 

“Stagnation is simply not an option. I promise not only to be a champion for our police department, but for the organization and the customers and communities we serve,” Morales said to a crowd of agency staff and police officers across the metro area. 

When asked why he decided to come to Minnesota, after applying to be police chief in Tallahassee, Florida, serving as deputy police commissioner in Mount Vernon, NY, and subsequently applying to be police chief in Austin, Texas, Greeley, Colorado, and Hamden, Connecticut, Morales said, “This is where it began, right? This is ground zero after the George Floyd incident. We need to build trust between the communities and the members alike.”  

In point of fact, Morales has had his own history of difficulties dealing with the public, in particular communities of color. According to ProPublica, he failed to get medical help for a 28-year-old Hispanic man in 2013. ProPublica also uncovered nine other complaints with 25 allegations against him while he was a New York police officer, which included using excessive force and racist language, threatening to seize property, strip-searching individuals and using a flashlight as a club. 

Morales says those incidents helped him grow. “I most definitely learned from every incident, particularly when I’m being judged by civilian counterparts. Specifically, how to be empathetic, how to deal with situations. You learn from experience, and you move on,” said Morales. 

Morales still seems to maintain support for the now debunked “broken windows” theory of policing—a strategy employed by the New York Police Department that focused on enforcing misdemeanors like fare—beating as a way to combat more serious crime—which disproportionately targeted poor neighborhoods and communities of color. 

Although he never said he was a fan of it, Morales, nevertheless, defends the practice. “Addressing the quality-of-life issues is an important factor in that; if you deal with those issues, before they become major issues, you will eliminate a lot of other issues,” said Morales. “I expect people to pay their fare. But when we’re on the line [and we find out] you don’t pay your fare, well, I think that becomes very evident right away.” 

When asked to cite evidence that those who don’t pay are the ones who cause trouble, Morales responded, “Twenty-five years of crime reductions in New York City. Twenty-five years of crime reduction across America. And in the last several years, what has happened that all of a sudden crime is starting to increase?” 

Although not paying the fare to ride public transit is a misdemeanor in Minnesota, punishable by a $180 fine, the state legislature expects to change that this session to a petty misdemeanor with a citation of at least $35 that can be issued by non-sworn personnel. 

Until then, Morales allows his officers to decide what to do. “If you don’t pay your fare, then you have to be held accountable. That doesn’t necessarily lead to a citation or an arrest. But I give my officers the ability to use discretion, and to remove that individual from the line,” says Morales. 

He demonstrates his approach one day as we walk into the Lake Street/Midtown Station, where he ends up greeting and joking with two of his subordinates, who are working voluntary overtime to patrol the station with security officers from BelCom. The officers stopped riders as they entered the station, asking if they had paid their fare. Those who didn’t were directed to go to a nearby ticket-vending machine to pay their fare. 

Aside from policing, he is a polyglot—he speaks Spanish and French, and then some. Back at Lake Street/Midtown, as we make our way back up to the train platform, Morales interrupts our interview to speak Spanish to a young Latina girl of about six years old who is waiting for the train with her mother. 

“It’s important that I connect with members of my community and they understand that, so that I can make a personal connection with them,” says Morales. 

He is an avid marathon runner with a prolific fitness-oriented social media presence who practices Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He plans to run the Twin Cities Marathon later this year. 

One of the first controversies he faced as transit police chief was how to handle disgraced former Hennepin County Sheriff David Hutchinson, who returned to the agency after a leave of absence, following a drunk-driving crash on Interstate 94 near Alexandria in which he destroyed his assigned SUV, as well as allegations that he promoted a hostile work environment. 

“He’s still entitled to his due process, and this is an ongoing investigation. So to be fair and impartial, I would have to refrain from making comment,” said Morales, who at the time of his statement had already fired Hutchinson two weeks earlier. News of Hutchinson’s firing was reported on April 6, a day after Hutchinson waived his right to challenge the termination.  

Another issue is what role the Metro Transit Police will have in implementing the court-enforced agreement between the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, the Department of Justice, and the city of Minneapolis. “Metro Transit Police Department has nothing to do with the Department of Justice and their review of the Minneapolis Police Department. That’s their conclusion within another department. We will support and fall in line,” says Morales. 

Perhaps the burning question is how he will handle those who use drugs. During our interview, Morales demonstrated that as we left the Lake Street/Midtown Station. We board the second car, known by many as where people smoke. 

We happened upon a group of people on one end of the car who appeared to be smoking. “The party’s over, right?” Morales said to the group. Some of them proceed to run out of the train. Some remained onboard. One decided to get off at the last minute, but was stopped by Morales as the door closed. 

It turns out they gather in the second train car because that’s where they can keep one another safe. “We’re all going different places,” said Paul, who did not provide a last name. “Most of us are going [to] different places and don’t have another form of transportation. And there’s an unwritten rule that we all end up in the same car.” They all ended up doing drugs to cope with trauma. One person said they moved here from Milwaukee to get help. 

They ended up on the train because they had spent time at local encampments, which have been repeatedly subject to sweeps. “When you push those people out of the camp, they don’t want to be in shelters [because] shelters break up couples, they have curfews, and you have to be sober,” said Paul. “So where are they gonna go? This is the only warm spot where they can congregate except for four hours at night.”  

Although some in the group felt uncomfortable speaking with Morales, citing their past experiences with law enforcement, they nonetheless engaged with him, with one thanking him and the department for the ample notice they gave to encampments before they cleared them. 

“You gave them ample [30 days] heads up because it really sucks to wake up [and hear] you got 15 minutes to move. This is their home,” said Paul. “I’ve been in a tent before with everything I own and they told [me] you have 15 minutes, what you can’t take will be bulldozed.” 

Morales then offered to get them help when they arrived at the Mall of America Transit Station. As we arrived, Morales handed Paul off to another officer, a member of the agency’s Homeless Action Team, which connects the unhoused with social workers. 

Nearby, three people stood around with clear plastic bags of winter clothing, while other officers with the Homeless Action Team spoke with riders on the train who appeared unhoused, asking if they needed any help. 

Even though the agency is still short of more than 60 full-time police officers, Morales thinks that his existing complement of officers can hold down the fort. “I wouldn’t say that we have a need for more police. I would say that we have a need for more balance and presence within our communities,” said Morales.