Purpose

To increase lawmakers’ understanding of public safety work by requiring members who oversee public safety policy or finance to participate in ride-alongs with law enforcement or fire departments, and to strengthen transparency around those activities.

Main Provisions

• Ride-along requirement: A member of a legislative committee with jurisdiction over public safety policy or public safety finance must participate in a ride-along with law enforcement or a fire department for at least 12 hours every two years (biennium).
• Reporting to leadership: For each ride-along, the member must report to the Speaker (House) and the Senate Majority Leader (Senate) the date and time, and the name and department of each law enforcement officer or firefighter they rode with.
• Public disclosure: The Legislative Reference Library must publish each member’s ride-along report on its website.
• Rules to implement: The House of Representatives and the Senate must adopt rules to implement this section.

Significant Changes to Existing Law

• Establishes a new mandatory activity (ride-alongs) for certain legislators.
• Adds a formal reporting and transparency process (timing, participants, and departments) tied to those ride-alongs.
• Creates a requirement to publish ride-along information publicly via the Legislative Reference Library.
• Requires legislative bodies to adopt rules to implement these provisions and to integrate the changes into Minnesota law and related statutory coding.

Implementation and Oversight

• Administrative action: House and Senate must adopt rules to implement the ride-along requirement.
• Public accessibility: Ride-along information will be published on the Legislative Reference Library’s website to ensure transparency.

Potential Impact

• Increases lawmakers’ firsthand exposure to public safety operations.
• Enhances public accountability by standardizing reporting and public posting of ride-along details.
• May affect legislators’ schedules and time commitments related to committee work.

Relevant Terms ride-along, public safety policy, public safety finance, biennium, law enforcement, firefighter, date, time, name, department, officer, Legislative Reference Library, Speaker, Senate Majority Leader, publish, rules, Minnesota Statutes, coding, implementation.