A State Patrol leader announced Monday that the agency plans to assign an investigator to exclusively handle threats against elected officials after incidents more than doubled between 2024 and 2025.
State Patrol Lt. Colonel Jeremy Geiger told the Advisory Committee on Capitol Security that 50 threats against lawmakers, executive officers and state offices have been fielded this year. That’s up from 19 in 2024. Of the threats fielded this year, 13 had resulted in criminal charges so far, he said.
“In the first part of December, we’ll be assigning and promoting a person, a sworn trooper, as a threat investigator working directly at the [Bureau of Criminal Apprehension] as a liaison to the Capitol security,” Geiger said. “The reason for that is what we’ve talked about in past committee hearings is the rise in threats to many on this Capitol complex.”
Geiger said a cohort of 20 new state troopers have also been hired to boost security at the Capitol complex and will begin training next month.
The moves, and broader conversations about adding safeguards at the Capitol, come after a Capitol break-in and the assassination of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their Brooklyn Park home in June. Another lawmaker, state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were wounded the same night by a shooter on their doorstep.
Shortly after a man was found in the Capitol building after hours without authorization, Capitol Security moved to limit entry points to the building and required badge access to more doorways into the building.
The advisory committee is weighing additional security recommendations on the Capitol complex. It heard from an analyst from the National Conference of State Legislatures about how other statehouses address decorum, weapons restrictions and security staffing plans.
The panel is likely to develop guidelines to hand to lawmakers late this year or early next. An external firm auditing the Capitol complex for security liabilities said it is on track to issue its findings later this year.