ST. PAUL, MN – Today, the Senate passed a comprehensive public safety bill, said Senator Mary Kiffmeyer (R- Big Lake). The Senate Republican bill provides critical funding to hold criminals accountable and keep Minnesota’s communities safe. It focuses on all aspects of the criminal justice system and courts, including youth intervention, criminal laws, sentencing guidelines, police, prosecutors, public defenders, judges, prisons, and probation.
There are three main objectives in the bill: provide support for law enforcement recruitment and retention; toughen penalties for criminal activity; and increase transparency and accountability in judicial and prosecutorial actions.
Included in this legislation is a bill authored by Kiffmeyer to increase funding for county attorney Trial Court training.
Since the early 1980’s, the Minnesota County Attorneys Association (MCAA) has received bi-annual legislative appropriations for prosecutor training. This funding has allowed MCAA to train thousands of prosecutors and provide more than 900 accredited classes.
“It is imperative for the MCCA to continue these important trainings, such as the highly popular trial school training, which uses audio-visual equipment to provide instantaneous video critiquing ability,” Kiffmeyer said. “County Attorney Offices are also currently experiencing a lack of experienced applicants due to the great increase in retirements. For this reason, additional funding is needed for New Attorney topics and to ensure additional training is available to meet case law updates and emerging issues. It is better to invest in local county prosecutorial training than shifting prosecutions to the Attorney General’s office.”
Under this bill, a $100,000 grant will be appropriated in fiscal year 2023 for MCCA prosecutorial Trial Court and law enforcement training. This grant funds several annual seminars so new, young prosecutors can learn from experienced county attorneys. The base appropriation for this will then be $200,000 in each of fiscal years 2024 and 2025 and thereafter.
Support For law enforcement
Included in the bill are provisions to address the central issues currently facing Minnesota’s law enforcement officers: recruitment, retention, education and training, and equipment.
“The work of our law enforcement officers is critical to maintaining law and order and addressing our state’s rise in crime,” Kiffmeyer said. “I am so grateful to those who put their lives on the line to protect ours. Keeping the public safe from crime must be a universal and everyday priority, and the Senate Republican’s comprehensive public safety bill includes key provisions to ensure just that.”
The bill includes two provisions already passed by the Senate this year. The first is funding to the Department of Public Safety to develop and conduct an advertising campaign to elevate the law enforcement profession. This campaign will highlight law enforcement as an honorable career and the good work officers do every day to keep our communities safe. The idea was brought forward by law enforcement professionals who are dealing with more openings than applicants across the state. The second provision contains funding for the award-winning Pathways to Policing Program to support non-traditional candidates for law enforcement who already have at least an associate’s degree in another discipline.
To retain current law enforcement officers, the bill provides $3,000 in one-time bonuses to all licensed police officers and an additional incentive of $7,000 to officers nearing retirement who choose to continue serving.
Holding criminals accountable for their crimes
Minnesota is experiencing a dangerous increase in violent crime across our state because criminals are not being held accountable for their crimes. To address this, the Judiciary & Public Safety Committee adopted several “tough on crime” provisions into the comprehensive public safety bill that increase penalties for repeat offenders, carjackers, and violent criminals using firearms. There is also enhanced support for the Violent Crime Enforcement Teams (VCET), which have been successful at targeting drugs and guns across the state.
Providing accountability and transparency
To respond to growing instances of violent criminals becoming repeat offenders and frequent decisions by prosecutors and judges to go easy on criminals, this bill takes several steps to improve transparency for the decisions that lead to early releases and failures to charge to the fullest extent possible.
This bill includes limited funding for nonprofits. There have been recent stories where newly founded nonprofits are unable to prove what their funding is actually going towards. Even more alarmingly, in the past two years, there have been reports about violence interrupters tasked to work with law enforcement to de-escalate situations by non-profits who have themselves violently harmed other individuals. Youth Intervention Programs, a proven system that requires a local match with accountability to the Department of Public Safety and legislature, receives an additional $3 million in the bill.
This bill supports Minnesota’s criminal justice system with a $50 million increase in funding for public defenders. Recent reports of a strike by public defenders indicate the entire defense process is at risk. The majority of people charged with a crime use a public defender and are entitled to a fair and speedy trial with adequate representation for those with low incomes. Historically, public defender salaries have not kept up with the salaries of prosecutors, requiring a nearly 8% increase in funding for public defenders last year and additional investment this year for new employees to lower caseloads.