On Thursday, state senators quietly granted final legislative approval on a measure establishing a task force to study policing practices and excessive uses of force against people of color.
The results of the study will lay the groundwork for broader police reform legislation next year.
The resolution was a direct response to the police killing of George Floyd, a Black Minneapolis man who died after a White police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
The measure sailed through the Senate with very little controversy or discussion. But that was not the case in the House, where conversations around race and policing have been tense this session.
House Republicans and the sponsors of the resolution agreed to remove references to Floyd to keep the measure on track, and it passed unanimously. But a brief, heated debate hinted at the deep partisan divide that remains on this issue.
