During the last two years, public safety was a top issue at the Minnesota Legislature, where conversation centered mainly on police accountability measures after the killings of George Floyd and Daunte Wright.
Public safety again figures to be top of mind in St. Paul when the Legislature convenes on Jan. 31, but this time with a new focus: violent crime. Republican and Democratic state lawmakers say they will roll out a host of plans aimed at reducing crimes like carjackings and robberies that have plagued the Twin Cities metro area over the past year.
Lawmakers in both major parties often argue public safety should not be politicized. And both say they expect to work to find common ground on policy to address crime. At the same time, crime is expected to be a potent campaign issue later this year, a situation that could fuel a rancorous and partisan debate at the Capitol. The House is controlled by Democrats while the Senate is held by Republicans, and both legislative chambers will be up for grabs in November elections.
The first glimpse of what that debate might look like came this week. On Thursday, Republicans told reporters they will aim to stifle Minnesota’s Sentencing Guidelines Commission, as well as judges and liberal prosecutors in Hennepin and Ramsey counties for actions and policies they view as letting people who have committed crimes off too early or too easily.
“The Sentencing Guidelines Commission is representative of a DFL, Democrat agenda to put criminals before victims,” said Sen. Warren Limmer, a Maple Grove Republican who chairs the Senate’s Judiciary and Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee. “We’re very concerned about this radical ideology.”
[image_caption]State Rep. Cedrick Frazier[/image_caption]
The GOP approach to public safety
Crime has always been discussed at the Capitol, and Republicans in particular have criticized Democrats since 2020 over what they saw as an inadequate response to arson and looting in the aftermath of the Floyd murder. The GOP also hammered Democrats at the Capitol and on the campaign trail in 2020 for the push by some activists and DFLers to defund or dismantle police (though no such policies had been proposed by Democratic legislators).
But crime has risen to the top of the fold as officials report a near-record number of murders in Minneapolis and a wave of carjackings, gun violence and other crimes in the metro area. And at the Republican news conference Thursday, Limmer gave a rough outline for what the Senate will focus on in the upcoming legislative session.
That agenda includes examining laws “for loopholes and sentences that don’t make sense or that allow criminals just a slap on the wrist, such as for carjacking and robbery.” Limmer also said Republicans would “shed light” on decisions by county attorneys and judges to let out repeat offenders or not prosecute them. And he said the GOP would try to “rein in” Walz appointees on the Sentencing Guidelines Commission, potentially by requiring Senate confirmation for the positions.
The 11-member commission, which sets standards for criminal sentences given by judges, has drawn criticism from Republicans over a recent plan that could shorten sentences for people who commit a crime when they are on probation, supervised release or in custody. The state’s criminal history point system for determining sentences has an extra penalty for when people commit offenses when they’re in supervision, and supporters of the plan questioned why that should lead to longer sentences. They also argue the criteria impacts mostly people charged with less serious offenses, and say longer sentences don’t necessarily reduce crime.
Limmer, however, said “the last thing we need to do right now is to have lighter punishments.”
The commission on Thursday postponed a vote they had scheduled for the proposal.
The GOP also criticized the commission for a 2020 decision to cap probation at five years for people convicted of crimes.
Republicans have also taken aim at Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman and Ramsey County Attorney John Choi as well as some judges for either not prosecuting certain cases or not handing out what they think should be long enough sentences. In September, Choi announced his office won’t prosecute many felony cases that stem from low-level traffic stops, arguing in part they have a disproportionate impact on people of color.
Limmer said Republicans hope to help police concerned about retention and recruiting, and said cops don’t like when prosecutors, particularly in the Twin Cities metro, don’t prosecute the “very laws the Legislature has put into the books and signed by governors.” (St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell supported Choi’s traffic-stop policy, though the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association has proposed requiring county attorneys to give data to the Legislature about felony offenses they don’t bring charges on.)
Separately on Friday, state Sen. Paul Gazelka, an East Gull Lake Republican running for governor, said he will propose legislation to toughen minimum sentences for carjacking, enforce minimum sentences for committing crimes with firearms that he said are being waived by judges and prosecutors, and offer signing bonuses for police officers, particularly in high-crime areas.
“This year it is my hope that myself and the rest of the Republicans move forward a pro-police agenda,” Gazelka said.
What Democrats hope to do to address crime
Democrats say they, too, hope to address crime in the state. Rep. Heather Edelson, an Edina DFLer elected in 2018, said on Twitter in late December that she is working with a group of suburban legislators, law enforcement and others to write new bills responding to crime.
[image_caption]State Rep. Heather Edelson[/image_caption]
Edelson said increasing criminal penalties alone won’t make people safer, because no matter how long you lock people up, they get out eventually. She said the criminal justice system, especially for youths, should be about rehabilitation and intervention.
Edelson said one potential measure would expand the authority of the state Department of Commerce’s Fraud Bureau — which currently has 15 officers charged with investigating insurance fraud — to help solve auto theft and carjacking crimes by helping understaffed police departments in the state. Edelson said Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, expects to introduce a bill to add more officers to the bureau.
Another proposal would require a period of house arrest for youth who steal a vehicle before they’re released into a diversion program specific to auto theft, Edelson said. Right now, young people aren’t always booked into juvenile detention with just auto theft alone, or they might be booked and quickly released, she said. “What we’re seeing is this kind of churning of a lot of the same repeat offenders,” Edelson said.
Edelson said she also hopes to fund state grants for police departments to recruit in high schools and then hire graduates for part time work at the station while attending school for law enforcement, a program she said could help diversify the police force.
[image_caption]State Rep. Kelly Moller[/image_caption]
Last month, Frazier said he plans to carry a bill that would pay for community crime prevention programs, invest in ways to improve the intelligence gathering of police to help solve crimes and law enforcement strategies like “community policing with foot patrol.”
“So officers being embedded in the community, getting to know the community,” Frazier said. “That often comes up a lot around this whole idea that many officers don’t live in their communities. It doesn’t mean that those officers can’t get to know the community. It doesn’t mean those officers can’t build relationships. This may not be a popular thing, but there is some data that shows that when that type of policing is in place, it does deter some crime and it brings down crime rates.”
Walz hasn’t released any public safety plans yet ahead of the legislative session but he held a virtual meeting with West Metro police chiefs Friday morning.
Election year implications
Lawmakers in both parties say they’ll work across the political aisle to find common ground on public safety legislation.
Edelson said she’s made an effort to gain bipartisan support for all her legislation, and said she had just left a public safety call with Sen. Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks, and the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association.
Legislators who want to make progress on the issue can’t vilify each other, Edelson said, adding she also anticipates a lot of conversations with legislators from Minneapolis and St. Paul who may have a different vision of public safety.
Limmer told reporters he expects to seek Democratic support for legislation such as Senate confirmation of Sentencing Guidelines Commission positions. “I would imagine with the backdrop of rising violent crime, and an agency that has the authority to alter criminal sentences that, they too would want to make sure that they would be in support of such a bill,” Limmer said.
Still, Edelson said moving bipartisan legislation is “going to be incredibly challenging in an election year.”
“It’s really hard to make things bipartisan where we agree on the exact public safety bill,” Edelson said. “And working with law enforcement and making sure that we’re going to get support also from community advocates, it’s complicated.”
Crime and support for police has been a central campaign theme already for Republicans who hope to take control of the Legislature and the governor’s office. Polling shows Democrats may be vulnerable on the issue, as many voters say public safety has gotten worse in the Twin Cities. Republicans also ran on public safety issues in 2020, especially in close suburban races.
[image_caption]House Deputy Minority Leader Anne Neu Brindley[/image_caption]
“Public safety is the top issue for Minnesotans right now … because again we just ended a year of record crime in the state of Minnesota,” Neu Brindley said. “Certainly we will be talking to Minnesotans about what they care about. Fortunately for us as Republicans, we align with that issue.”
I can make this simple. When people have nothing left to lose they will resort to anything that strikes them as a good idea. They have no real medical or dental care or a chance for an adequate education that is affordable and would provide a decent life. We have a decades long insufficient minimum wage that is not even close to a living standard. It’s called having No Hope. Very few politicians care about them. I’d be really pissed off and wouldn’t care about consequences either.
Barbara …. I don’t understand your statement about no chance for an affordable education. Our public schools are free, plus there are free meals both during the school year and when classes are not in session. And, activity fees are not charged for some families who are on the free and lunch programs. There are many things that our schools do to allow students to succeed. College financial aid is based on need and so students, in need, can attend for free or with a great deal of financial help. The problem, as I see it, is that kids won’t attend school, won’t work at it, won’t cooperate with rules. So, please do not blame the educational system. Regarding your comment about not having health care or dental care … of course they do. It is called Medicaid … it is FREE to low income individuals. I am sooo tired of the thought that there are not many, many, many, many people who want everyone to succeed and programs to help people and help them succeed. But, they need to do their part in building success. And that, as I see it, is the problem.
You can make it simple, but you can’t make it make accurate. That sure doesn’t explain 15-year old kids carjacking people.
You’re safe. “Crime” is not something you should worry about. Think about who is harmed when we double down on failed approaches to public safety.
When you mean “you’re safe” what you really mean is that white people in affluent neighborhoods are safe, even though that is becoming less and less true. But people who live in poorer neighborhoods have to live with crime and violence. That’s why those neighborhoods overwhelmingly rejected the nonsense defund the police referendum. Crime is not something that goes in parentheses when your kids are getting shot.
Tell that
To the parents of the three little kids murdered this year
Limmer should be retired. He knows damned well that he can’t change a single law without DFL support and that of the governor, including anything relating to sentencing guidelines.
I don’t think that I have seen one story which links the huge increase in car prices to the surge in car jackings. We have created a society where it is difficult to work without owning a car. If the average cost of a used car is $30,000 that means that the price of a car is more than one year’s wages for someone making less than $15 per hour. I definitely think that legislative action can help but this is not going to be an easy fix because there are many social and economic factors that appear to be involved here.
You think the carjackers are stealing cars so they have transportation to work?
I don’t think that this is a matter of irresponsible youth stealing cars for fun and excitement. I am wondering if there is now some kind of black market for cars out there which may be triggering what is happening. If people can’t afford transportation through legitimate means this could be creating a business opportunity for criminals. I would like to see more reporting on the why rather than just the scary headlines.
There is a lot of evidence that this is teenagers stealing cars for fun an excitement. The cars are often abandoned shortly after the thefts/assaults.
To the extent there is an economic angle, the cars are being stripped for parts (i.e. catalyitic converters) but aren’t being sold whole and used for transportation.
You’re so right Mr. Anderson, and your view is supported by David Markle (below) who speaks from experience.
Grand theft auto is a BUSINESS. Focusing on the teenage car-jackers simply misses the point. Teenagers can do the actual theft, but they are not the ones running chop shops, selling parts, maintaining networks for fencing, they are simply being used for their un-prosecutable nature as minors.
It’s a business that is not run by the teenagers.
It is best to understand the nature and structure of the car thieves if the incentive (profitability) is to be removed and the hierarchy of guilt is understood.
The catalytic converter theft likewise shows a tide of easy money awaits somebody with a sawz-all and a buyer.
Here’s a report showing car theft to be a much bigger problem elsewhere in the US than in MN.
https://insurify.com/insights/cities-most-car-thefts-2021/
The teenagers are getting the focus not because of the stealing of cars, but because of the unnecessary and gratuitous violence that accompanies the carjackings and robberies.
A lot of these cars are abandoned shortly after being stolen. If these kids are part of larger crime rings, they are not very good at it. I have yet to see any link from these arrests to a larger organization.
And of course not a word about getting, or keeping guns out of the hands of offenders! Empty, empty rhetoric as usual.
Every car should have GPS tracker installed at the factory or dealer in a place where it cannot be removed and a way to turn on the car alarm when stolen. It would help to automatically shut off the car with warning lights coming on. In the day, people would die by flying through the windshield. Cars were totally redesigned to make it much less likely to happen.
As for juveniles doing these crimes more than one, there are many ways to make that less feasible. Punishment that creates a large group of career criminals is extremely expensive and unwise. Speeches about being tough on crime are worse that. Only a new set of well thought out responses will help.
What good would this do if the county just lets them go after catching them?
So the DFL is surprised you have repeat offenders when you don’t punish them on their first few offenses….. How is that a surprise? A small percentage of folks do most of the crimes, especially violent crime. Hard to carjack your second car when you’re in jail for carjacking the first one.
I’ve never heard any politician, Democratic or Republican, say “you’ve got to understand the offender” or for that matter take any position that was not “tough on crime” or unsympathetic to crime victims. Why do you and others like Mr. Briebart, insist on stating otherwise?
Anyway, criminal sentencing is a uniquely judicial function. Judges in Minnesota at least are nonpartisan. And they are constrained by often harsh sentencing guidelines that prevent them from imposing lenient sentences in most cases. If you have a problem with the way criminals getting off too easy,that’s a problem with the judges not a political party.
Releasing people accused of crimes is another matter. Bail is typically misused to keep accused people in jail as opposed to making sure they appear for trial which is the purpose of bail. But the right to reasonable bail and other pretrial protections are constitutional rights which even underprivileged people have. Mostly on paper but there are some public officials who at least pay lip service toward those rights. I might be one of those members of the public who don’t like it either. But it’s not a simplistic “right versus left” issue.
Good idea about built-in electronic tracking. I’ve had two vehicles stolen, one found days later, twelve miles away, minus both radiators, a tire, the battery, and (of course) the catalytic converter. The other, I learned a number of weeks after its disappearance, had gotten promptly sold to Metro Metals for its scrap metal value.
I’d like to hear more about your experience. I read the other day about Metro Metal and their Sergeant Schultz (“I know nothing!”) attitude toward catalytic converters brought to their premises. It’s understandable that a dealer in car parts might be unable to trace those unmarked parts but cars have VIN numbers. Or did Metro Metal trace your vehicle back to you?
The political kabuki paralleling crime and racial justice issues is in full swing. From the racists who try to erase the black leadership on Question 2 in Minneapolis, to the Paul Gazelka’s of Minnesota politics who think “toughness” in sentencing is going to make an impact, we’re dealing here with a political discussion completely divorced from reality. Right now, politicians are just elbowing their way to the trough, looking for to burnish their images for electoral advantage. None of the changes proposed in the article are going to make an impact, other than to make it look like “politicians are doing something”.
Calling the people behind Amendment 2 racists might be a little strong. Definitely ignorant and benefitting from white privilege. But the defund the police movement certainly did try to erase black voices and is completely divorced from the reality of the crime and violence that Minneapolis’s black residents face on a daily basis.
The idea that crime and violence aren’t serious issues is just wrong.
The idea that I implied crime and violence are not serious issues is not just wrong, it’s laughable.
It’s 100% accurate to call those who seek to erase the black female leadership of Yes4Mpls – indeed, it’s always been a common practice of racists to downplay the work of black women.
How about downplaying Black women like Nekima Levy Armstrong who opposed the amendment? How about the Black women in Minneapolis who overwhelmingly opposed the amendment?
Its a two-way street.
Most of the DFL already have a record concerning their approach to the crime problem.
They also remained cowering with fear, along with Tim Walz, while MPLS burned and while a DFL legislature threated to burn down Hugo.
“most of the DFL…cowering in fear…”
You seem to have your own drama going on with the ‘DFL’. Projection?
I guess you aren’t being serious, maybe just trying to keep the lies coming in order to humiliate and perhaps destroy the reputations of people in the broadest sense possible– a huge unnamed group at a time.
You’ve made better points Mr. Gotzman.
Easy to see the pattern here:
D’s talk about crime in terms of trying to reduce it.
R’s talk about crime in terms of trying to reduce D’s
Warren Limmer has been in the Senate for nearly 30 years
Hard to imagine why we even have any problems left
Yes, indeed, let’s work to increase the politicization and slogan-driven demagoguery of an independent commission charged with a detail-oriented criminal justice function. That way another governmental organization can be hopelessly paralyzed as well!
My impression is the Sentencing Commission looks at data. How does a particular “point” work in the system? The proposal that has Repubs (supposedly) up in arms would abolish tacking on an extra sentence penalty for committing a crime while on probation for another. The perp would just be sentenced as though they weren’t on probation, so is that really a “lighter punishment”? And for goodness sake, don’t we think 5 years of successful probation for a offense should be enough? Especially when small gub’mint “conservatives” won’t adequately fund probation services? In any event, the Commission is the state body that has the expertise in sentencing and the effects of the point system, not the legislature (and most especially not a Repub legislature), no matter how much “conservative” Limmer wants to grandstand the issue for political gain.
Crime has (cynically) been used by the American right as a political football for well over half a century now, stemming largely from Nixon and the Sixties’ endless War on Crime. It has always been carried out with racial overtones, and has almost never been fought in a bipartisan manner, largely because the Repub party has never been a party of compromise and consensus, and most certainly is not now. Theirs is always the route of demagoguery over data. Of using the issue as an electoral cudgel.
So the likelihood that any of this can be addressed in the coming session is exactly zero. Crime is obviously going to be the main plank of the Repubs’ coming campaign, they surely haven’t the slightest interest in reaching a legislative consensus on it beforehand. So much so that its an insult to one’s intelligence to pretend they do.
How about the victims of violent crimes? Don’t they count anymore? All I hear is the “poor guy who carjacked the car got prison time”, how about his victim who will be traumatized for life? How about a young lady who got raped and has her life ruined? Doesn’t she count? How about the victim of pedophiles who will be scarred for life?
This “we need to understand the criminal” is a slap in the face to the victims. As I stated, hard to carjack your second car by gun point, when you are in jail from the first.
“ All I hear is the “poor guy who carjacked the car got prison time”,”
Total exaggeration…..
If that is all you hear you must be in custody commiserating with your fellow carjackers.
Edward, not one thing written about the victims of these crimes…. They are the ones we should be concerned with, unfortunately many here are more concerned with the criminal.
“unfortunately many here are more concerned with the criminal”
Again, no basis in reality: give us the MINNPOST link where concern for carjackers trumps concern for its victims…
As Republican President James A Garfield told us:
“The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable”
C’mon Joe, take that first step into the light of day…
When we have a problem we want to solve, we start by figuring out why it’s happening. I know conservatives have a problem with science, so let me show you how this might work.
If we want to reduce deaths due to fires, we may start by asking some of the following questions. Are the fires during daytime or nightime hours? Are the deaths from residential fires, or from fires in commercial or industrial buildings? Are people not able to evacuate the structure in a timely manner?
Then we may ask what are done common causes of the fires. Is it arson? Is it electrical appliances? Is it smoking? Once we answer some of these questions, it leads to more questions, but in the end we figure out causes to our problems so we can apply the right solutions.
Of course, this is why liberals lose elections. Long term solutions aren’t sexy. Knee jerk comments resonate with most voters far more than I’d like.
But Frank, don’t you understand? If we lock up every criminal for life, for any crime committed, crime will end. That’s how it works, or so I’ve been told.
To link back to the earlier discussion on carjacking and places like the Glen Lake Farm School, minors with carjacking or gun offenses or assault should be sentenced to a high school diploma: These offenders got to where they are through a bad set of circumstances growing up: not some genetic fault line. We need to have some basic level of confidence that we can get a 16 year old on the road to being something resembling a contributing citizen.
“Hennepin County Home School wasn’t designed to be like a prison for young people. Kids live in “cottages” set in the rolling hills in one of the wealthiest Twin Cities suburbs. Its next door neighbor is a golf course.
There’s no barbed wire fences or guard towers — only the chain link fence and security cameras give away that the property might house juvenile offenders.
The ethos of the facility is focused on rehabilitation rather than punishment, and offers kids counseling, chemical dependency treatment, family therapy and other services.”
Not an easy job and the failures of this approach has led to a preference for supervised release back to the environment that got them in trouble in the first place. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
Daunte Wright would have been a lot better off being sentenced to a high school diploma…