Today Senate Democrats brought forward the Omnibus Judiciary and Public Safety Conference Committee Report. The final legislation fails to prioritize community safety, neglects law enforcement, and spends taxpayer dollars on unproven non-profits.

Though a handful of Senate amendments made it into the final report, a number of key amendments with bipartisan support that were previously accepted in the Senate were eliminated in conference committee including the following:

• Make law enforcement body camera footage publicly available if the subject is an elected official
• Increase penalties on highway demonstrations
• Require the State Patrol to conduct a comprehensive study for the swift and safe removal of highway protests
• Close a loophole and create a specific crime of fleeing police in a car
• Create a crime of knowingly being in a stolen vehicle
• Removal of those convicted of human trafficking, criminal sexual conduct, manslaughter, or murder from early release through the Minnesota Rehabilitation and Reinvestment Act (MRRA)

“Every amendment adopted onto this bill had bipartisan support, so it was incredibly disheartening to see that the conference committee felt it necessary to remove all of those commonsense amendments,” said Senator Karin Housley (R-Stillwater). “I supported this bill the first time it left the senate floor because it felt like a true bipartisan effort. I’m disappointed that so much of that good work was eliminated in conference committee – Minnesotans deserve to feel safe in their homes and communities, and this new iteration of the bill puts partisan politics above reaching that goal.”

Notably this bill fails to address funding concerns within the Department of Corrections. A substantial amount of overtime is currently required to fully staff state prisons, such as those in Stillwater and Oak Park Heights.