ST. PAUL, Minn. – With the measure stalled in the Minnesota House, a state Senate committee on a 5-to-4 vote passed a bill that aims to clarify when school resource officers are allowed to use restraining holds on violent students.
Anoka Republican Jim Abeler supports repealing the current law, saying it caused law enforcement to withdraw on-site officers from schools in his district “because they felt they had no choice, and to put their officers in peril for some kind of lawsuit and for some kind of personal damage, for doing what they thought was truly the best.”
Bill author, Plymouth Democrat Bonnie Westlin, says repealing the current law will undo all of last year’s work, when the goal is to build on it, “instead of going back to what I would describe as being sort of the Wild West, and things may vary from one district to the next.”
The bill would have the Peace Officer Standards and Training Board develop a statewide policy to govern use-of-force by school resource officers.
Opponents warn that activists appointed by the governor will be able to make any rule they want with no accountability to the public or law enforcement.
Comments