The Minnesota Justice Coalition is urging Democrats to pass legislation this session that they say will increase police accountability in the state.
The coalition is a grassroots group that advocates for legislative actions that address criminal justice and public safety. The group said not enough progressive reforms are being pushed through this session even though Democrats have control of the Minnesota House, Senate, and governor’s office. The group held a news conference Wednesday alongside supporters from other community organizations.
“It’s time for the DFL to listen to the community-led policy initiatives and act,” said Johnathon McClellan, the coalition’s president.
Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) said it’s crucial that lawmakers keep promises they made after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police in 2020 to enact changes related to policing.
“Where is the receipt that the state that killed George Floyd has passed police accountability reforms?” Hussein said.
Hussein pointed to the federal and state investigations which found that Minneapolis police routinely violated people’s civil rights. He said those violations occurred because there are no means to hold officers responsible for their actions.
The coalition is supporting several bills that would require police officers to have professional liability insurance, end pretextual stops, and use de-escalation techniques before resorting to deadly force. Another bill would exclude qualified immunity as a defense for law enforcement.
Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality, said she especially supports the bill related to professional liability insurance. The requirement would make it impossible for officers with serious misconduct on their records to be insured, essentially ending their careers in law enforcement, she said, while officers who don’t engage in misconduct could obtain good insurance coverage.
“What we want is high quality, professional, constitutional, and accountable policing,” Gross said. “And that’s what everybody in this state deserves.”
The coalition also wants to make amendments to the Hardel Sherrell Act, which the Legislature passed in 2021. The act gives the Minnesota Department of Corrections more authority to sanction jails that don’t provide necessary care to incarcerated people.
The bill is named after a man who died of medical neglect in 2018 while incarcerated in the Beltrami County jail. The amendments would require correctional officers in Minnesota prisons and jails to wear body-worn cameras, among other measures.
