‘Minor issues’ still to be resolved in public safety bill as potential shutdown looms
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Minnesota's government will shut down in a matter of days if lawmakers don't finish ironing out the details of a public safety bill.
This bill has been the most contentious during negotiations by lawmakers who are up against a Wednesday deadline. A framework is in place, but lawmakers say they still need to resolve what they're calling "some minor issues."
"Each side got some things and some didn’t get things that they wanted," said Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka.
New restrictions on no-knock warrants and a requirement that 911 operators refer calls to mental health crisis teams when appropriate are both highlights of a bipartisan public safety bill.
The bill, however, didn’t have nearly the number of police accountability measures in it Democrats had wanted.
"There are some police accountability provisions within the bill, certainly nowhere near what the House had prepared and compromised and forwarded to the other body," said Rep. Carlos Mariani (DFL – St. Paul).
In the more than 200-page bill included the following: limiting when and how law enforcement can use no-knock warrants, changes to how the police licensing board collects data on officer misconduct, $1 million to purchase and operate body-worn cameras and the creation of an office to investigate and track missing and murdered Indigenous people.
Notably absent from the bill is a proposal to limit traffic stops for things like expired tabs or broken tail lights as Republicans resisted larger changes to policing and the criminal justice system.
"We weren’t going to do anything that was anti-police and we did not want to take away tools that we think they need to make sure we lower the crime that’s everywhere," said Gazelka.
"It’s a great disappointment to me, it should be a great disappointment to the house," said Mariani.