Democrats at the Minnesota Legislature spent Monday airing frustrations that a compromise public safety bill reached with the Republican-led Senate didn’t include enough of their proposals to reshape policing.
In turn, a group of DFL state lawmakers in the People of Color and Indigenous Caucus (POCI) urged Gov. Tim Walz to take more executive actions on policing. The POCI caucus also outlined 30 proposals for the state’s police licensing board, such as changes to body camera disclosure laws.
In the face of GOP opposition, Democrats have increasingly tried to sidestep the Legislature altogether, with the state’s Peace Officer Standards and Training Board (POST) a favorite venue for those efforts. Earlier this year, for instance, Walz asked the POST Board to ban officers from affiliating with white supremacists, and to implement new model policies for cops responding to protests.
On Monday, Walz announced he would direct the POST Board to create a public dashboard for data the organization collects, part of a push to increase police scrutiny and transparency. “We are committed to helping Minnesota get to a safe place one way or the other,” said state Rep. Carlos Mariani, a St. Paul DFLer who chairs the House Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance and Policy Committee.
But going around the Legislature has considerable limitations and, at least when it comes to POST, isn’t likely to carry the full DFL agenda. Not only is the board required to follow a lengthy rule-making process, its members are free to ignore the wishes of the governor and lawmakers.
A changing POST Board
Kelly McCarthy, who chairs the POST Board and is chief of the Mendota Heights Police Department, said the licensing board once had a smaller role in police oversight. It was focused primarily on hiring and basic licensure.
That has changed in recent years. McCarthy, who has been the board chair for two years, said the POST Board has taken a more “active” role in setting policing standards in Minnesota. “I think the expectations of the board have changed dramatically,” McCarthy said.
In 2020, lawmakers expanded the board from 15 members to 17, a move made after the killing of George Floyd. The board is made up of various police representatives, as well as people representing the higher education system and members of the general public. The two new board spots are for the public. The POST Board is also still working to address the results of a 2020 audit that found its “statutory and regulatory functions can be expanded to create more oversight and accountability.”
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Peter Callaghan[/image_credit][image_caption]Kelly McCarthy, who chairs the POST Board and is chief of the Mendota Heights Police Department, said the licensing board once had a smaller role in police oversight.[/image_caption]
In April, the POST Board did agree to seek changes to statewide standards for handling public assemblies and write a policy banning officers from adhering to white supremacist ideology or affiliating with white supremacist groups. “This is what a lot of the POCI caucus is asking for, they’re asking for civilian oversight of police agencies so we can have accountability,” Walz said Monday. “The POST Board, in the way it’s intended, is supposed to do that.”
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Peter Callaghan[/image_credit][image_caption]House Speaker Melissa Hortman[/image_caption]
Top lawmakers did agree to beef up the POST Board’s data collection for the board’s effort to track misconduct by officers. The database is billed as an early warning system meant to catch bad cops.
Politicians pressure the POST Board to act
On Monday, Walz and lawmakers pressed the POST Board to go even further.
[image_credit]REUTERS/Eric Miller[/image_credit][image_caption]Gov. Tim Walz[/image_caption]
Democrats have tried to get the Legislature to adopt such a law this year, but Republicans have not agreed to it. (Walz directed state-run law enforcement Monday to turn over footage of police killings by their officers within five days, but the new policy doesn’t apply to local departments.) State law currently says police chiefs and sheriffs can release video at their own discretion.
Yet the POST Board has limitations as a work-around for legislative action. In order to mandate departments follow a new policy, the board must undergo a lengthy rule-making process that can include review by an administrative law judge. McCarthy, the board chair, said the white supremacist affiliation ban and the public assembly regulations, for instance, are roughly eight months away from being reality — if they make it through the process at all.
The board is also independent, meaning it isn’t required to take up everything Walz or legislators want. McCarthy said the POST Board could look at standardizing department rules on releasing body camera footage of police killings and is open to “anything and everything.” But, she said: “I don’t know that that’s necessarily a policy issue.”
Democrats have also called on the Legislature to limit traffic stops, such as ones for expired car tabs or a broken tail light. They haven’t asked the POST Board to take up the issue, but McCarthy said it still wouldn’t be the proper venue. “I think those are laws,” McCarthy said. “The police in and of themselves should not decide what laws we should enforce. If it was up to me and I got to pick and choose, there’s a whole lot of laws I wouldn’t enforce, but that wouldn’t be upholding my oath. So that really needs to be at the elected level.”
Similarly, Walz told reporters Monday he didn’t think he could order state troopers to limit traffic stops without changing state law.
Should the POST Board be involved?
Some in the GOP oppose the effort to implement a range of new policies through the POST Board. Sen. Warren Limmer, a Republican from Maple Grove who chairs the Senate’s Judiciary and Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee, said local departments should have broad leeway to run their agencies as they, and their communities, see fit.
[image_caption]State Sen. Warren Limmer[/image_caption]
On Monday, Democratic lawmakers and advocates for police reform characterized the Legislature’s deal on police reform as meager.
Rep. John Thompson, DFL-St. Paul, said at a press conference Walz needed to “show some testicular fortitude” and was giving Black lawmakers and their constituents “lip service” rather than leadership in cutting a deal with Senate Republicans. (He later walked back the sentiment, saying he wasn’t attacking the governor but wanted progress on his priorities, such as investment in Black communities.)
“We need more than just police,” Thompson said. “We need more than just judges and prosecutors. We need strong investments.”
Jaylani Hussein, director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, interrupted a news conference to ask Walz to veto the public safety agreement should it reach his desk without broader reforms. Walz suggested he wouldn’t.
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Peter Callaghan[/image_credit][image_caption]State Rep. John Thompson, DFL-St. Paul, said at a press conference Walz needed to “show some testicular fortitude” and was giving Black lawmakers and their constituents “lip service” rather than leadership in cutting a deal with Senate Republicans.[/image_caption]
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans said the agreement with House DFLers constituted a fair compromise, and urged the House to pass it without changes. Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake, said the Senate would remove any new legislation added on by the House. “You don’t get everything you want,” Gazelka said.
Republicans have said many of the DFL proposals would make it harder for police to do their jobs and put public safety at risk. For instance, Republicans said they opposed bills to limit traffic stops because those stops sometimes result in officers finding illegal guns.
Limmer cited a statistic from the State Patrol, which said in 1.18 million traffic stops from 2018 to the present, the agency arrested 6,217 people with active warrants and confiscated 932 firearms.
The GOP negotiated an increase in penalties for people who assault officers and an increase in pay for state-run law enforcement, among other measures aimed at beefing up police.
Asked Monday about DFL efforts to legislate through the POST Board, McCarthy had a mixed response. Not all decisions should be made by the licensing board, she said. “It’s my opinion that it’s best done by the elected officials because they’re the ones that hold the election certificate and they have a bigger view of things.”
Still, she said: “I also know that if people are being obstinate and resistant to change that sometimes you have to find other ways.”
“I don’t blame people for getting creative,” McCarthy said.
MinnPost reporter Peter Callaghan contributed to this report.
Sen Limmer thinks that a rate of .005% in arrests vs. traffic stops is a success story? Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that our police departments should be focusing on investigating and following up on serious crimes like rape/murder- the clearance rate for those two categories is pitiful and puts the lie to the pro-cop argument that we need the cops to keep us safe. If they can’t be bother to go after actual violent criminals, what are they doing?
932 firearms confiscated from 1.18 million traffic stops works out to 0.08 percent of stops leading to firearm recovery. It would seem it’s not that effective of a strategy, Senator Limmer?
One size never fits all. It doesn’t even work with socks.
In response to a few high profile cases in the Twin Cities area, politicians and liberals are trying to mandate their perception of law enforcement operation on all police agencies in the state. Reforms which may be warranted in one area simply are unnecessary in others. The political “solutions” may even be a hinderance – or at least a time-consuming bureaucratic burden – for some police agencies
Police officers are human. Certainly there are some who may abuse their authority. Imperfection exists among a handful in any human endeavor – even clergy(and certainly elected officials and their bureaucrats).
Police in some Twin Cities metro communities may be under fire, but I suspect a statewide poll would show very strong support for local police in the vast majority of communities. If there is a problem, local voters can take care of it. They know the situation in their community and the local law enforcement personnel far better than politicians in St. Paul.
If we still had 2 major political parties that met briefly and quickly to do the work of ‘the people’ for a small amt of $$ and a little per diem, then went back to their careers and lIves a lot of these current problems wouldn’t exist. I remember when citizens did their civic duty willingly and to the best of their ability; it happened not that many years ago. But politics has become a 24/7 game of one upmanship, spending 60% of one’s time fundraising, and the rest of the time maneuvering, manipulating, doing end runs, and saying & doing whatever it takes to garner a perceived ‘win’. It is incredibly unproductive and insanely expensive…and now draws the independently wealthy and the pathological, whose goals absolutely do not align with average Americans. The ‘perks’ definitely outweigh the responsibilities and ramifications of the positions. For life! –>Only the American voters can turn this around. But the REPS are high on power they don’t want to lose so are spending their time writing hundreds of state laws to disenfranchise all minority voters who tend to vote DEM, packing the courts, and still supporting a perennial liar/authoritarian who demands total fealty. The DEMs have great plans that will dramatically improve Anericans lives but they also require great effort and vats of $$$. The REPS refuse to spend any $$$ on anyone but themselves; the DEMs aren’t manipulative enough to outmaneuver them or bold enough to kill the filibuster. So a stalemate persists…. It’s a massively dysfunctional state of being. So get off your couches and get involved. Demand better! Start w civics classes in schools again. Insist on voting rights for all. Resist all the incessant bs designed to muddy the waters and make our heads spin. Expect clarity and helpful results. Hold these politicians fully responsible for their actions. If we all raise our standards, they wb forced to raise theirs as well. Or go work elsewhere.
I’m 45 and the world you described (citizen representatives in a part time legislature) has never existed in my lifetime. I doubt it ever really existed.
That world did exist when the Legislature was in regular session only every other year, and when legislative elections were (officially, anyway) nonpartisan.
I looked it up. The legislature last met every-other-year in 1971. 50 years ago. A few years after that we had partisan elections, though before that there were two different caucuses. Legislators were “non-partisan” but everyone knew which caucus they supported. So, not in my lifetime and not exactly before that.
There was also just one female and one person of color represented in the legislature in 1971. Things weren’t exactly perfect.
No, not by a long shot. I was actually just addressing the part about part-time legislators meeting in short sessions.
Despite the imperfections, good a lot of progressive legislation (for the time) came out of the Minnesota Legislature.
Actually, that’s totally backwards. If you want better legislators, you should pay them a lot more and make it a real, full-time job. The “citizen legislator” bit with shorter sessions and less money will mean that only the wealthy can do it and will cause outside money to dominate even more.
932 firearms from 1,180,000 traffic stops is a rate of 0.079%.
6217 active warrants from 1.18 M traffic stops is a rate of 0.53%.
What’s the incentive to replace an outdated license tab or fix a broken tail light if there’s no chance of being caught and punished for those infractions? Because if they don’t pull you over while you’re driving to ticket you for those things, when else would you be in jeopardy of being caught for being out of compliance?
Also, if we really want to get illegal guns off the street, why would we forfeit one of the rare opportunities to find them, i.e., a legal stop for another offense?
I forgot to renew license tabs once. I got a ticket on my car when it was parked at the library, no traffic stop required. This incentivized me to get new tabs to avoid the fine. I imagine it would have been just as effective if they had sent me the ticket in the mail.
If you’re concerned about getting illegal guns off the street it seems the best place to start would be to end private gun sales without a background check on the buyer.
So let’s see, after having police stand down (ordered by DFL Governor and Mayor) during peaceful protests that burned 300 private businesses, after Kamala Harris set up a bail program for protesters, after the Democratic Mpls city council suggested we defund the police, after police officers are demonize by DFL, they are now committed to “getting to a safe place one way or another”. Really??
Can’t believe social workers are not solving the gang related gun violence or the epidemic of car jackings and muggings. There are a few here at Minnpost that claim there is no crime wave, wonder why DFL is concerned with “getting safe”?
Good news for Twin Cities, we are not alone, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Chicago, DC and many other cities that encouraged “safe spaces” for protesters are in the same boat.
The stats direct from the city refute your argument that there is an overall crime wave in 2021 vs 2019 or even earlier years. This data is pretty easy to find, google is your friend.
Lets talk a little about what the Minneapolis cops are actually doing. Year to date they’ve reported 1932 violent crimes, but have only made 425 arrests for those crimes. 8 arrests against 193 reported rapes. That’s pitiful. However, they’ve been able to make 7445 “stops” for things like ‘suspicious person” or “equipment violation”. There are always going to be resource constraints- maybe the police need to be putting their effort into investigating and solving violent crimes, rather than stopping people for broken tail lights. I know that doesn’t fit your narrative, but those are actual facts as reported by the MPD.
Eric, shootings up 100%, murders up 56% and car jackings up 300%… That is a crime wave. Hell, even the DFL (who want to defund the police) admits the problem.
The source and timeframe for your stats? I went to the city dashboard.
“[A]fter Kamala Harris set up a bail program for protesters . . .”
She did not set it up. She voiced her support for it. Cash bail is a fundamentally unfair system, and her support for ending it is not surprising.
Really, Joe, you should stop giving any credence at all to anything Lindsey Graham says. He doesn’t have your best interests at heart.
It’s a good idea, I say.
https://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2020/08/police-reform-heres-a-different-model-for-officer-discipline/?hilite=%27Steve%27%2C%27Timmer%27
“Legislature’s deal on police reform as meager” Maybe folks were generally good with our police, i.e. 1 bad apple? If I were a screaming leftist, I would bleed for a criminal that gets caught a little out of sorts, but, those same folks give no blood for a cop caught a little out of sorts. Yes, some of us folks can clearly understand what unbalanced looks like!