Skip to main content Skip to office menu Skip to footer
Capital IconMinnesota Legislature

Legislative News and Views - Rep. Debra Hilstrom (DFL)

Back to profile

House Passes Judiciary and Public Safety Bill with Increased Support for Law Enforcement, Victim, and Courts

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Rep. Debra Hilstrom

NEWS RELEASE

Minnesota House of Representatives

District 40B 651-296-3709 – rep.debra.hilstrom@house.mn

379 State Office Building, St. Paul, MN 55155

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

Matt Privratsky 651-296-6860

May 16, 2013

 

House Passes Judiciary and Public Safety Bill with Increased Support for Law Enforcement, Victim, and Courts

St Paul - The House DFL passed their Judiciary and Public Safety Omnibus funding bill today with investments in law enforcement, victims, and courts. The bill increases funding by $102 million over the biennium to help return stability to a budget that has been consistently cut over the past 5 years.  It also includes a bipartisan provision to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill.

State Rep. Michael Paymar (DFL–St. Paul), chair of the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee, says the bill will help keep Minnesotans safer by providing law enforcement and emergency responders needed resources, while better supporting crime victims.

“This legislation ensures that Minnesota’s public safety system has the resources to keep residents safe” said Rep. Paymar. “We have included funding to replace our state’s aging Criminal History System and improve school safety.”

To support law enforcement across Minnesota, the bill invests $5.63 million in fiscal years 2014-15 to upgrade the state’s aging 20-year-old Criminal History System – Minnesota’s crime database and top BCA priority. The legislation also provides $2.72 million during the next two years to replace the state’s crime statistic reporting system, which is so old it can no longer be integrated with other systems across the United States. 

In order to improve the effectiveness of the background check system in Minnesota, the bill also allocates $1.05 million to integrate non-electronic data into the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension computer systems in a timely fashion, resulting in greater accuracy and completeness for background checks.  This will help process over 67,000 cases for people who have been civilly committed.  

This provision passed with broad bipartisan support in the Senate and House.

Rep. Debra Hilstrom (DFL – Brooklyn Center) is the Chair of the Judiciary Finance and Policy Committee.

“This will greatly improve our background check system across the state by putting the missing data into the background check system,” said Rep. Hilstrom. 

To improve school safety the bill also includes $860,000 in fiscal years 2014-2015 and $810,000 in the future to fund a School Safety Center. The center will assess threats and hazards to Minnesota schools, while providing training, conducting exercises, and assisting schools with safety improvements. The center also will have an emergency response to assist schools in the event of an incident.

Supporting crime victims also is a priority in the bill. The legislation provides an additional $3 million a year for crime victim grants, which fund domestic violence victim shelters, sexual assault victim services, programs to support child victims, and services for victims.

Another key provision will protect Minnesota’s vulnerable adults by increasing and strengthening provisions in law related to the appointment, background studies done of guardians and conservators, and the mandated reports required of them. 

“Our legal system has been neglected for too long,” said Rep. Hilstrom. “We have people across the state that depend on a quality legal system that offers necessary protections under the law.  We need to do a better job of supporting those people and this bill does that.”

New investments will help retain existing positions and allow for cost of living raises for public defenders and court staff.

The bill also makes a $1.7 million investment in specialty courts, such as those used to handle cases related to drugs, veterans, domestic violence, and mental health.  Specialty courts are often referred to as problem-solving courts and have proven to be successful in helping individuals turn their lives around and reduce costs to the criminal justice system. 

To help the courts become even more efficient, the bill also creates a court technology fee of $2 to assist users of the courts in complying with the courts’ new initiative to make the process “paperless” through such initiatives as e-filing and e-discovery.

 

###