PIERRE, SD (KELO.COM) The State Senate has voted to give the Governor more authority to handle large protests, as a way to avoid recent, expensive problems in North Dakota..
The Public Safety Zones bill would allow the state to prohibit more than 20 people at a time from gathering on any one tract of land under state supervision. It aims to prevent the gathering of thousands of protesters in one spot such has happened at the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.
"It's just a common sense attempt by South Dakota to not go down the path of spending 30, 40 or 50 million dollars on protesters from out of state," says Republican State Senator Al Novstrup.
But critics claim the bill is overly broad and shouldn't be passed in a rush before there is a problem. The Chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe claims there could be constitutional issues with the bill.
The Public Safety Zones plan now goes back to the South Dakota House for a final vote.
The Trump Administration has cleared the way for the Keystone XL Pipeline, so the potential for large protests in South Dakota is great. The pipeline would bisect the state, west of the Missouri River, before heading south.