Bills move on police training, dealing with diverse people

HARRISBURG » Bills to give police departments information about an applicant’s disciplinary past and to train officers in how to interact with people of different racial and ethic backgrounds were approved unanimously on Wednesday by the state House.

The House voted after an emotional debate to require thorough background checks and to mandate that an applicant’s former department must provide information on the officer’s job history, including disciplinary actions.

One of the bills directs the

Municipal Police Officers Education and Training Commission to maintain an electronic database with details about why officers have left employment. Agencies would have to check the database before hiring an officer.

“So-called bad apples will spoil the barrel if they are not plucked out before the rot spreads,” said Rep. Margo Davidson, D-Delaware. “We have to address a culture where bad actors go unpunished or move on with their baggage.”

Philadelphia Democratic state Rep. Chris Rabb called it “a seminal piece of legislation that will put the Keystone State not just on the map but on the very top in terms of what policing and responsibility looks like.”

The other House measure would require police to be trained in how to recognize and report child abuse, as well as how to treat people from various racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds.

There would also be annual training on the use of force, including conflict deescalation. Officers would be trained every two years on cultural awareness and implicit bias.

Both measures were sent to the state Senate.

Bills central to Democrats’ police reform platform — narrowing the circumstances for allowable use of lethal force and appointing special prosecutors to investigate police shootings — have not seen action in the Legislature.

Also, Pennsylvania lawmakers are not considering legislation to make police department records of officer discipline accessible to the public, even as New York and New Jersey have moved in recent days to join other states that do so. The hiring bill passed by the House says explicitly the records are not subject to the state’s Rightto-Know Law.

The votes came shortly after a state Senate committee unanimously advanced proposals to ban chokeholds unless deadly force is authorized and require all police agencies to keep track of instances in which police have used physical force.