Rep. Hill: 'Police Reform Should Be Revisited'

Press release from House Republican Office:

July 30, 2020

To the Editor,

The legislature really missed an opportunity to come together and promote united change in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. As a member of the Judiciary Committee, I was eager to lend my support in finding meaningful ways that our police officers can continue to keep our communities safe while holding everyone equally accountable to the law. Unfortunately, the legislation that was approved last week by the House and by the Senate earlier today does not accomplish those goals.

This legislation did not go through the critical public hearing process, nor was it reviewed and debated by either the Judiciary or Public Safety committees. In the House, we received final bill language after midnight on the day of special session, with the expectation to vote on it after debate ended. After a rushed review, I was hoping to lean on the several good parts of the legislation to lend my support. Some of these positive changes included more mental health screenings for our officers, greater transparency to provide public access to disciplinary records, allowing departments to further integrate social workers when responding to certain emergency situations, and the use of body and dashboard cameras.

However, there was not enough to outweigh the chilling effects this legislation will have on the day-to-day operations of police departments across the state, and the significant costs that will fall to our taxpayers. Qualified immunity has been vastly changed within this bill, opening the flood gates to frivolous lawsuits that will tie up our already crowded court system. Currently, if an officer’s actions violate someone’s constitutional rights, the officer can be sued in federal court, as well as prosecuted in criminal court. Now, officers can be sued for any perceived transgression in state court, whether or not the alleged action was a violation of a defined constitutional right. Municipalities will have to indemnify the officer, unless actions are found by a jury to be willful or wanton. This means that our small towns will have to carry liability insurance for these instances. Even nuisance cases that previously would have been dismissed early on will have to be defended, and in many instances will be settled prior to trial, which will only drive up insurance costs. An amendment was brought forth to correct this issue, but ultimately failed as result of a 72-72 tied vote.

There are other unfunded mandates within the bill that will be paid for by our taxpayers. While body and dashboard cameras are good, the state will only reimburse Canton and Avon for 30% of their cost. Towns will also have to take on the cost of expensive data storage. Additionally, there is no funding available for the fees associated with the bill's new requirements for accreditation of all law enforcement agencies, or the increased testing and training of officers.

The bill also makes sweeping changes to the way police officers can conduct routine traffic stops. I fear that as a result of these new restrictions, it will be harder to keep drugs and illegal firearms out of our neighborhoods, and make it much harder for police to track down children who are the subjects of Amber Alerts.

Anecdotally, I am hearing that the underlying language in this bill will hurt recruiting efforts and those who are close to retirement are already turning in their paperwork. Ironically, there is an initiative within the legislation to promote more minority hiring in police departments, an initiative I wholeheartedly support. My concern is that if there are no interested people to recruit, or if departments have to reduce their hiring because of the budget impact of these mandates, then the bill falls terribly short of its intended goal.

The governor has indicated that he will sign the legislation into law. I strongly believe that we must revisit this conversation to address the negative consequences of this bill soon. The Canton and Avon Police Departments do a wonderful job of serving and protecting our communities. By adding more stress to local police budgets, we are asking our law enforcement officers to take on greater risk and do more with less resources.

Sincerely,

Leslee Hill

This press release was produced by the House Republican Office. The views expressed here are the author's own.