ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Legislature has adjourned its 2021 session, but legislators have lots of homework. Before reconvening in a special session in June, they will need to resolve differences on how firmly to hold police to new accountability standards or to leave the issue well enough alone. There is agreement on a public safety budget, but key policy issues remain unresolved. A joint House-Senate conference committee has been assigned to decide which Democratic police accountability proposals from the House will make it into law, if any. Senate Republicans have resisted the House policing package that reflects experiences from a series of police slayings that culminated in the deaths of George Floyd and Daunte Wright and subsequent demands for reform. Legislators on the People of Color and Indigenous Caucus, mostly Democrats, lobbied strenuously for the House package . Which side will prevail? In an interview, the Senate majority leader, Republican Paul Gazelka, seemed satisfied to let the conference committee do its work. “Depending on who you’re talking to, we’re either way apart or close,” said Gazelka. “Because there are some things that we think that we can do, but again, some people would want a lot more, some people want less.”
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George Floyd and Daunte Wright. Their deaths at the hands of white police officers cast a giant influence over the state Legislature’s debate on policing reform.
