Minnesota House passes public safety package: Will this be the change communities need?

By Sheena Denny

J.D. Candidate, Mitchell Hamline School of Law, 2022

On April 22, 2021, the Minnesota House of Representatives passed an omnibus public safety and criminal justice reform finance bill that focused on police reform and incorporated many police accountability measures sought by activists. The bill, sponsored by House Representative Carlos Mariani, is said to be a step towards police reform that is needed to dismantle systemic racism embedded in our criminal justice system. “At its core, this bill is about building trust among all of us.”1 It not only aims to increase accountability for law enforcement, but invests in public safety, seeks justice for survivors of sexual assault, and helps equip communities for keeping their neighborhoods safe. Proponents of the bill says that it also “focuses on reducing racial bias, decriminalizes poverty, and ensuring that every Minnesotan faces equitable treatment under our justice system.”2

The passage of the bill came in the wake of the police killing of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who was shot by a white officer during a traffic stop on April 11, 2021,3 and just two days after the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. The bill “proposes to spend $1.8 billion to fund the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Corrections (DOC) and other public safety agencies and commissions through the 2022-23 biennium.”4 Notably, $933 million will go to the DOC to run Minnesota’s eleven state prisons, $280 million will fund community services, such as conditional release programs, $157.2 million will go to the Department of Public Safety for the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and $1.7 million will go towards law enforcement salary increases.5

Not only does this bill detail how and where the state will spend its money, but it includes several policy proposals that social justice advocates have been fighting for. One such policy provision is to prohibit no-knock warrants when the only underlying crime is suspected drug possession. This issue gained national attention when Breonna Taylor was killed in her home in Kentucky when police forced entry into her apartment as part of a drug investigation on March 13, 2020.6 Minnesota, however, has its own dark history with no-knock warrants. Representative Athena Hollins, and sponsor of the no-knock warrant bill, remembers Andre Madison, who was suspected of possessing just $5 worth of marijuana and was killed in his home during a gun battle when Minneapolis police entered through the front and rear doors.7 No-knock warrants are disproportionately executed in Black and Brown communities.8 Yet, several Republican lawmakers refuse to sign-on to the bill, arguing that it would raise the level of danger for police officers.9

With little time to finish special session, the Minnesota Legislature has not yet agreed on the public safety package. Community activists continue to push for legislation that will prevent the unjust killings of people of color. Frustration grows the longer our legislature refuses to understand the basic principles of human decency. Policy proposals in this bill include unedited body camera video available within 48 hours, police training on crimes motivated by bias, the creation of an alleged misconduct database, the banning of chokeholds and neck restraints, and will limit the reasons an officer can pull over a driver for certain traffic violations—the latter two directly responding to the killings of George Floyd and Daunte Wright.

While violence and social unrest continue to plague our cities, lawmakers remain at an impasse over whether we need police reform and accountability. Republican narratives remain centered around defunding the police when the very essence of the bill will do just the opposite.10 Refusing to pass the bill fuels community feelings of dehumanization. It perpetuates the cycle of systemic racism and isolation of victims, not only those involving police shootings, but those of sexual misconduct.

Earlier this year, the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned a felony rape conviction because the victim was voluntarily intoxicated.11 Current Minnesota law criminalizes sexual conduct when there is penetration by a person who “knows or has reason to know that the complainant is mentally incapacitated.”12 The court’s decision focused on the meaning of mentally incapacitated as defined by Minn. Stat. § 609.341, subd. 7 (2020). Unfortunately, the statute does not include a person who is voluntarily intoxicated. Included in the public safety package is House File 707, proposed by Representative Kelly Moler, which will redefine “mentally incapacitated” and remove roadblocks to justice where victims were voluntarily intoxicated.13

As lawmakers work to reach a consensus on the omnibus public safety package, Minnesotans continue to wait—we wait for justice for George Floyd, we wait as Derek Chauvin appeals his conviction, we wait for justice for Daunte Wright, we wait for police reform, accountability, and change. While we wait, the trauma plaguing our communities continue to grow and prevents the healing of our streets. How long will the legislature go before passing a law that provides protection for victims and accountability from those charged with protecting its citizens?

  1. RELEASE: Minnesota House Advances Public Safety, Judiciary and Civil Law Budget, Minn. Legislature (Apr. 22, 2021), https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/profile/news/10399/31795 [https://perma.cc/U4E6-5V9Q].
  2. Id.
  3. Tim Harlow, Lawmakers take closer look at law banning air fresheners, Star Trib. (Apr. 26, 2021), https://www.startribune.com/lawmakers-take-closer-look-at-law-banning-air-fresheners/600050144/ [https://perma.cc/73XK-96MS]; see The killing of Daunte Wright, MPR News, https://www.mprnews.org/crime-law-and-justice/killing-of-daunte-wright [https://perma.cc/7QXR-8B78] (last visited June 30, 2021).
  4. Tim Walker, Omnibus bill would fund public safety with $1.8 billion, Minn. Legislature, https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/sessiondaily/SDView.aspx?StoryID=15874 [https://perma.cc/XC2A-ZWWP].
  5. See the comprehensive bill at: H.F. 1078, 2d Engrossment, 92d Legislature (2021), https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/bill.php?f=HF1078&b=house&y=2021&ssn=0 [https://perma.cc/M6BH-8XRH].
  6. Richard A. Oppel Jr., Derrick Bryson Taylor & Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, What to Know About Breonna Taylor’s Death, N.Y. Times (Apr. 26, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/article/breonna-taylor-police.html [https://perma.cc/43FM-UZ8W]. “Fury over her killing by the police in Louisville, Ky., fueled protests, and questions persist about how the botched raid unfolded.” Id.
  7. Tim Walker, Limits on ‘no-knock’ warrants advance to House Floor, Minn. Legislature, May 12, 2021, https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/SessionDaily/Story/15780 [https://perma.cc/S9MZ-UUQ8].
  8. PR Lockhart, After Breonna Taylor’s death, activists fought to ban surprise police raids. One year later, they’re winning, Guardian, (Mar. 26, 2021), https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/mar/26/breonna-taylor-no-knock-warrant-bans-us-police-experts [https://perma.cc/72AV-33R7].
  9. Id.
  10. See generally Douglas Ernst, Black Lives Matter protests, ‘defund the police’ politics usher in era of dismal police recruitment, Wash. Times, (May 19, 2021), https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/may/19/black-lives-matter-protests-defund-the-police-poli/ [https://perma.cc/N3XB-Y994].
  11. See State v. Khalil, 956 N.W.2d 627 (Minn. 2021).
  12. Id. at 629.
  13. RELEASE: Bipartisan, bicameral legislators and advocates call for strengthened sexual assault laws, Minn. Legislature (Apr. 7, 2021), https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/profile/news/15511/31643 [https://perma.cc/8UZ2-6TPE].