| For Immediate Release | For more information contact: |
| January 10, 2000 | Bill Walsh (651-296-0640) |
(St. Paul, MN...) House Republicans today announced their crime prevention agenda with several proposals aimed at preventing the types of tragedies that took the lives of Katie Poirer and Cally Jo Larson in 1999.
"The high profile cases of Katie Poirer and Cally Jo Larson vividly illustrated where the gaps in Minnesota's criminal laws exists with respect to sex offenders," said House Majority Leader Tim Pawlenty. "Fixing these gaps in the law will be a high priority for House Republicans in the 2000 session."
Topping the list of initiatives will be creating and funding an integrated information system for Minnesota's criminal justice community. The system will allow police departments throughout the state to immediately check for prior criminal activity that may have occurred in other jurisdictions.
"Cops, prosecutors and judges need accurate, timely, and relevant information to make good decisions that best serve public safety," said Rep. Rich Stanek, Chairman of the House Crime Prevention Committee. "Without the ability to share information, Minnesota's revolving door of criminal justice will continue to rotate and repeat offenders will continue to offend."
Republicans will also make changes to the sexual offender laws requiring lifetime registration for multiple sexual offenders, making violations of offender registration a felony penalty, and restricting name changes of sexual offenders.
"Most people would be shocked to find out these common sense restrictions aren't already in law," added Rep. Sherry Broecker, Chairwoman of the House Judiciary Finance Committee.
In addition to the items in the Katie's Law, Republicans will also propose granting good- faith immunity to school districts and their employees who use and share data with law enforcement. Recent hearing of the House Republican School Safety Task Force found the ability or inability of schools to share information with local law enforcement and prosecutors was cited by the testifiers as a major stumbling block in their efforts to promote safe schools.
Also on the crime agenda is a proposal making the fourth DWI in ten years punishable as a felony. Current law allows no greater than a gross misdemeanor penalty for any DWI offense (including multiple offenses.)
"We need to get chronic drunk drivers off the road as fast as we can and making the fourth DWI a felony offense will help prevent the injuries and deaths that inevitably come from drunk driving," said Stanek.
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