Multiple Minnesota police departments have eliminated their officers from college campuses over considerations with a brand new state legislation that limits what sort of restraining strategies the in-school officers can use on college students.
The Anoka and Coon Rapids police departments introduced they’ve taken their officers out of the Anoka-Hennepin School District, the state’s largest college system with effectively over 30,000 college students.
The Clay County Sheriff’s Office and Moorhead Police Department, that are on the state’s western border with North Dakota, additionally stated they’re pulling officers out of faculties over the brand new legislation.
“It is my hope that we can continue to navigate the needs and concerns of community members. Unfortunately, the ambiguous limitations imposed this year are incompatible with sworn duties of a licensed peace officer,” Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt stated in an announcement.
“In an ideal world, there would never be a need for [School Resource Officers] to use physical restraint in the school environment,” she continued, “but when the need to respond to a serious incident arises, they need to know that they will not be held liable for appropriately fulfilling that duty.”
The mass withdrawals are in response to an training invoice signed into legislation this spring by Democrat Gov. Tim Walz.
The legislation bars school-based police from utilizing sure bodily holds on college students, such because the susceptible restraint, and outlaws any “comprehensive restraint on the head, neck and across most of the torso.”
The useful resource officers can use bodily holds on college students solely when going through a menace of bodily hurt or dying.
“The unintended consequences of this new law limit the lawful authority of SROs to keep children safe at school and those contracted with school districts to provide safety to the students and staff,” a letter from the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association reads, including, “SROs are counted on to support students and staff safety and must have a clear understanding and meaningful procedures and training in place before the implementation of any laws.”
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