Bill passes to make it easier to decertify police
The state board that oversees police will soon be tasked with creating standards of conduct that all Virginia officers must abide by thanks to legislation passed in Virginia’s special session and is expected to be signed by Gov. Ralph Northam.
The new law will also give the board more power to strip officers of their certification if they have committed a crime or violated those standards.
“This will keep them from job jumping,” said Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, who noted that her bill on police certification had the backing of the Virginia Sheriffs Association and other law enforcement interests.
Police who are under investigation for everything from abuse and harassment to felony crimes often leave a department before the investigation is over and find a job as a police officer somewhere else. It’s a problem that’s been identified in departments in Virginia and across the country. The new legislation is designed to prevent that from happening.
Locke had introduced similar bills in past sessions, but with Republican legislators in the majority, those bills never went far. She says there wasn’t the will at that time to look critically into police conduct because doing so was perceived as being anti-law enforcement. That’s changed, she said.
In August, a Virginian-Pilot investigation found three dozen officers convicted of crimes since 2011 who were never decertified, though they fit the criteria. The state Department of Criminal Justice Services later examined their list of officers currently employed in Virginia and found that none were working in a department in the state.
Current state law already requires the state Criminal Justice Services Board be given notice if
an officer resigns or is terminated in advance of a conviction, though until the conviction is final, they would not be decertified. Sometimes the board wasn’t getting that notice. The newly passed legislation gives justice services the power to act on its own, without notification, said Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon, who also sponsored the bill.
“Somebody could resign in the middle of the decertification process and short circuit the proceeding and then nobody would ever follow up after they were convicted,” he said. “Now you won’t be able to terminate the process by resigning. I think there’ll be more follow-through. … You’re not going to have that scenario really play out again.”
More importantly, the legislation expands when police can be decertified. Previously, state law made it impossible to strip an officer of their certification unless they were convicted of a felony or certain misdemeanors. Now with the ability to initiate decertification proceedings and create state-wide conduct standards, the justice services board can better oversee police, Surovell said. The legislation also requires sheriffs and chiefs
of police to disclose records of a former officer’s misconduct to potential law reinforcement employers. How justice services oversees police is one of several criminal justice reforms enacted in the special session. Among the other changes:
Police now must tell people they are about to execute a search warrant before doing so. Warrants must also be served during daytime hours unless police can show good cause for doing it at night.
Officers must go through deescalation training to maintain their certification.
Current standards must be updated to include training on the potential for racially biased policing, recognizing and interacting with people with mental illness, substance use disorders and cognitive disabilities.
More data must be collected on traffic stops and incidents where citizens are detained by police but not arrested.
Commonwealth’s attorneys will have better access to internal police records when an officer has been charged with a crime.
The Criminal Justice Services Board will now include representatives from the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission, a mental health service provider, and minority and community interests.