The day after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison, lawmakers in Minnesota reached an agreement on the highlights of a public safety bill that includes police reform, the Associated Press reported.
Top Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature said while not every aspect of the public safety and judiciary budget bill is finalized, they’ve reached compromises on key parts.
The agreement includes creating a police misconduct database to be able to detect and keep bad officers off the streets, regulating the use of no-knock warrants, and creating offices or task forces to look into missing or murdered Indigenous and Black women, KARE11 reported.
Legislators began to introduce police reform bills after massive protests across the country following the death of George Floyd last summer. Floyd died after Chauvin kneeled on his neck for several minutes despite his repeated pleas that he couldn’t breathe.
Chauvin was found guilty in April of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter.
The reform efforts were reinforced by other instances of police-involved shootings and violence in the state including that of Daunte Wright. Wright was fatally shot at a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, just 11 miles from where Floyd had been killed.
Following Floyd and Wright’s deaths, Democrats in the state pushed for more police reform, including limits on pretextual traffic stops, but Republicans pushed back, calling the measures “anti-police.”
“[The bill] doesn’t include some of the important police reform and accountability measures pushed by the House, but it is a step forward in delivering true public safety and justice for all Minnesotans despite divided government,” Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman said, the AP reported.