Friends and neighbors,
As we near the end of this week, the legislature is quickly heading towards the end of session. At this point, the Senate has passed both the first and second deadlines, the window in which bills need to pass the committee process.
As I spoke of a few months ago, a few issues stand out above the rest this year—keeping life affordable, taxes, and public safety. As our judiciary and public safety bill now moves toward the Senate floor, I wanted to update you and what we’re doing to keep Minnesota communities safe.
When we began our work to improve public safety, we wanted to focus on three main things; providing law enforcement recruitment and retention support, toughening penalties for criminal activity, and increasing transparency and accountability in Minnesota’s judicial system.
Support For Law Enforcement
Minnesota faces a deficiency of officers. Our plan includes provisions to address the central issues currently facing Minnesota’s law enforcement officers: recruitment, retention, education and training, and equipment.
Our bill includes two key provisions. 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. Law enforcement professionals brought forward the idea after dealing with more openings than applicants in departments across Minnesota. The second provision contains funding for the award-winning Pathways to Policing Program to support non-traditional candidates for law enforcement who already have an associate’s degree in another discipline.
We also provide one-time bonuses to retain current law enforcement officers. This extends to all licensed police officers, and we also include an additional incentive for officers nearing retirement who choose to continue serving.
Holding criminals accountable for their crimes
Our state is also experiencing a dangerous increase in violent crime. Criminals are not being held accountable for their crimes, which only empowers them to go further. Our caucus included several “tough on crime” bills into our public safety package that increase penalties for repeat offenders, carjackers, and those who commit violent crimes involving firearms. We know that these are some of the worst offenders, and law-abiding citizens are getting hurt far too often. We’re committed to stopping criminals from preying on the public without consequences and restoring law and order.
Providing accountability and transparency
We need to respond to growing instances of violent criminals becoming repeat offenders and frequent decisions by prosecutors and judges to go easy on criminals. We know our local judges are doing their job, but as we’ve also seen from news stories out of the metro showing, this isn’t the case everywhere. This is something we need to address to combat crime everywhere. Our plan takes several steps to improve judicial transparency and highlight decisions that lead to early releases or when criminals aren’t charged to the fullest extent possible. This includes a new searchable database to track judges’ records and allows Minnesotans to easily see when a judge departs down and goes easy on a violent offender. We know that you need transparency and relevant information to hold us all accountable, and it is our job to make sure your government works for you.
We know people across Minnesota have felt less safe over the last few years, and we are committed to fixing that. We prioritize our communities’ safety and funding public safety institutions while recruiting qualified officers to fill the shortages we face. We also know that Minnesota has gotten too weak on crime and that Minnesotans are frustrated with repeat offenders. We will continue to work to ensure that victims see justice and that criminals that prey on law-abiding citizens don’t go unpunished.