Senate Floor Session - 2/14/22

A $2 million investment to improve public opinion on the value of careers in law enforcement and to recruit future peace officers from nontraditional backgrounds passed the Senate on a vote of 51-15 Monday, February 14.

Citing a dearth of law enforcement recruits following a wave of retirements and the wavering public opinion following recent events, the author of SF 2848, Senator Karin Housley, R-Stillwater, said, “Our law enforcement officers have given so much to our communities. They have consistently been on the front lines of every crisis facing our state, and we’ve been hearing from law enforcement daily that they need help.”

An amendment to remove the funding from the ad campaign and instead placed the entire allocation in the Pathways to Policing program, which recruits new officers from a variety of backgrounds, sparked a lengthy debate on the role of advertising, the relationship between the police and the community and the underlying causes of crime. The amendment failed.

The Senate also passed, on a vote of 55-11, a bill to replenish the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund. SF 2677 allocates $2.73 billion to repay federal debt accrued in the fund due to the COVID-19 pandemic and restores it to a positive balance. Amendments to include Frontline Worker Pay and to extend unemployment benefits to non-licensed school workers like paraprofessionals and bus drivers were ruled not germane.