Three former officers are to be held accountable for failing to stop George Floyd's killing.

A federal trial against three former Minneapolis police officers seeks to hold them accountable for failing to stop George Floyd's killing — and possibly strike a blow against a long-standing police culture that fosters reluctance to rein in fellow officers.

Floyd's murder, which occurred while he was pinned under Officer Derek Chauvin's knee for more than nine minutes and was captured on multiple camera angles, may help prosecutors clear the bar for conviction on a charge that is rarely brought, in part because it is difficult to prove.

Nevertheless, several former federal prosecutors and legal experts see a message in the Department of Justice's pursuit of charges against J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao for civil rights violations against Floyd.

On his account, former chief of the department division that oversees police civil rights inquiries, Jonathan Smith, said, “This sends a real message to counterbalance that very strong cultural set of influences in policing that often prevents an officer from stepping forward and reporting or stopping misconduct.”

Prosecutors must prove that the ex-officers willfully violated Floyd's constitutional rights, which means they knew what they were doing was wrong but still did it.

Last year, Chauvin was convicted of state murder and manslaughter charges and pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights violation. Kueng, Lane, and Thao are also facing a separate state trial on charges of murder and manslaughter.

Local prosecutors and police departments have their own methods of punishing officers who do not intervene. However, high-profile examples demonstrate how dangerous it is, both personally and professionally, for officers who intervene or cooperate with investigations into fellow officers.

The New York Times has recently reported that the number of people killed by US police officers has not decreased since George Floyd's murder in 2020, knowing that many US police violence cases go unreported or misclassified in official records.