ANDOVER, Minn. — At a press conference at the Anoka Co. Sheriff's Office, Minnesota law enforcement leaders described instances that have already come up this fall in Minnesota schools where a School Resource Office could have removed a disruptive and trespassing student -- but they believe changes to a Minnesota law prevented them from doing so.
"If Chief Podany was a student in the school and doing something unruly, and I was to grab his arm, that is a restraint. That is not permissible under the new law," said Jeff Potts, Executive Director of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, while demonstrating grabbing the arm of Blaine Police Chief Brian Podany, who has pulled school resource officers from schools.
Potts said the change as simple as removing the word "or" now prevents SROs from using any sort of restraint on a disruptive student.
The statute used to say an agent of the district "may use reasonable force when it is necessary under the circumstances to restrain a student or prevent bodily harm or death to another."
After removing the word "or," it now says, "restrain a student to prevent bodily harm or death to another."
"If there's a situation where the officer does restrain the student before that split second of bodily harm or death – we think that is a violation of the law," Potts said.
As a result, 31 police departments and Sheriff's offices have now removed SROs from Minnesota schools because of what they interpret to be added liability.
"It sounds to me like there is some conflating of the two different statutes," said Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman.
Hortman said the legislature did not change the law regarding officer use of force, so she doesn't believe any changes need to be made because SROs are police officers.
"Since our laws already say that is the standard, I don't know it would make sense to come back in and put another line that says the exact same thing," Hortman said.
But the law enforcement leaders disagree and continue to say the law needs to be fixed to get SROs back into schools.
"This new law creates a different standard," said Imran Ali, general counsel for the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association.
The last word from Governor Walz on the issue before he left for his trip to Japan is that he has no plans to reconvene lawmakers before the next session.