Minnesota Senate plans million-dollar pro-police marketing campaign – Reuters
ST. PAUL — A Minnesota committee on Thursday, Feb. 10, advanced a $1 million proposal to launch a statewide pro-police marketing campaign, prompting a vote on the plan in the Minnesota Senate.
Republican senators proposed the campaign as part of a larger package of proposals to recruit and retain law enforcement officers across the state. They said amid a wave of violent crime in Minnesota, lawmakers needed more to keep police on the job. And a public appreciation campaign could do just that, GOP lawmakers said. The bill was also amended to include a $1 million appropriation for a program to help recruit people of color into law enforcement positions.
“You talk to your police officers in your community and this is what they’re going to tell you: ‘We need more officers on the streets.’ The only way to reduce crime in Minnesota is to have more police there,” said Sen. Karin Housley, R-Stillwater. “So this ad campaign will do that.”
The six Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee voted to push the bill forward, while the four Democrats there said it was inappropriate to come a week after Minneapolis police shot and killed Amir Locke as he was executing a no-knock warrant in a homicide investigation. Locke was not a suspect in the homicide.
“I think the timing is very insensitive,” said Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville. “To say we’re going to launch an ad campaign a week after this and to say we’re going to invest $1 million to say ‘The police are great’…there are a lot of great police out there, but let’s try to solve the problems.”
Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, said Thursday he expects the Senate to vote on the proposal on Monday, February 14.
Another Senate panel on Thursday considered two more bills that would spend $20 million on scholarships for Minnesotans hoping to earn an associate’s degree in law enforcement and an additional $20 million on grants for college students. already to enter the domain.
Locke’s family and advocates for the elimination of no-hit search warrants gathered at the state Capitol on Thursday to urge lawmakers to rewrite police laws. Democrats in the Minnesota House of Representatives have proposed a plan to limit when surprise searches can be used to allow them only when a life is in danger.
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