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State patrol to post more security officers in Minnesota Capitol • Minnesota Reformer [1]

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Date: 2025-10 

The Minnesota State Patrol has already bolstered security at the Capitol and is adding 20 more officers to be trained next month, a State Patrol officer told a security panel during a Monday meeting.

Capitol safety is top of mind for many Minnesotans after the June assassinations of Melissa and Mark Hortman and the shootings of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette. Additionally, in July a man used a wedge to prop open a door and accessed the Minnesota Capitol after hours.

Lt. Col. Jeremy Geiger told the Advisory Committee on Capitol Security Monday that the State Patrol has already added more officers to the Capitol since the July security breach and 20 new Capitol security officers are going through background checks and will begin their training in mid-November.

The State Patrol will also assign a trooper to a new role as a “threat investigator” to cover threats to lawmakers and others who work on the Capitol complex. Geiger said there’s been a rise in threats to people working in the Capitol. In 2024, the State Patrol investigated 19 threats; in the first 10 months of 2025, troopers investigated 50.

This new threat investigator will work directly with the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

The Advisory Committee on Capitol Security has been meeting monthly since the Hortman assassinations, receiving updates from security experts and the National Council on State Legislatures about what Capitol security looks like in other states.

Minnesota is an outlier among states, as the building has no security checkpoints or metal detectors and allows guns on its premises.

Thirty-four states prohibit firearms on Capitol grounds, according to The Council of State Governments, and 37 have metal detectors.

The advisory committee will meet again next month with the goal of creating a list of recommendations for the Legislature to adopt once it reconvenes for its 2026 legislative session in February.

Any solution will need to be bipartisan, given that Republicans and Democrats share control of the Minnesota House and Democrats control the Senate by just a single vote.

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[1] Url: https://minnesotareformer.com/briefs/state-patrol-to-post-more-security-officers-in-minnesota-capitol/

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