The Minnesota Senate today passed a comprehensive public safety bill that 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. 

“Minnesota has a real issue with public safety right now,” Senator David Osmek (R-Mound) said. “People don’t feel safe in their communities, criminals are getting bolder and facing fewer consequences, and our state is short hundreds of officers to cover its public safety need. People deserve to feel safe wherever they are in Minnesota. The status quo can’t continue. Senate Republicans are committed to restoring law and order and protecting all Minnesotans.”

Notably, the public safety bill includes two provisions authored by Sen. Osmek:

• SF 2843 Enhanced Penalty for Auto Theft & Crime Spree: Provides a longer sentence if a person commits another listed crime within seven days of stealing a vehicle.
• SF 3357 Body Camera Grants: enacts a state grant program for law enforcement agencies to purchase body cameras and to pay for maintenance and storage of data, with an emphasis on agencies located outside of the seven-county metropolitan area that do not yet have them.

Support For Law Enforcement 

The bill includes provisions to address the central issues currently facing Minnesota’s law enforcement officers: recruitment, retention, education and training, and equipment. 

The bill includes two provisions already passed by the Senate this year. The first is funding for 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 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 successfully targeted 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 cannot prove what their funding is 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 nonprofits 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. Most 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.