Skeptics wonder if LEOBOR reform goes far enough

Some praise proposal to cut ‘gag rule,’ but say more work needed

he said.

“Until we actually sit down and address why police officers at a disproportionate rate are continuing to arrest and sometimes hurt low-income, Black and brown individuals...it really doesn’t matter how we shake out LEOBOR because at the end of the day, the community is never going to buy in.”

Bella Robinson, executive director of the sex workers’ advocacy group, Coyote RI − aka “Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics” − said the LEOBOR hearing panels as currently constituted have “undermined public trust.”

But she had questions about the proposed House and Senate rewrites and, specifically, how they distinguish between “minor violations of departmental rules,” sexual harassment and “officers who engage in sexual conduct during prostitution investigations?”

The senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked no follow-up questions of Brown, Tuttle, Robinson or the lobbyists for the police who spelled out in detail what they liked about the Senate bill − and what still worried them.

For example: the House and Senate bills would both expand the misconduct hearing panels from three to five, with police officers holding three of the five seats. They would both reserve a fourth seat for a retired judge.

Among the differences: the Senate version would reserve a seat for the executive director of the nonprofit Nonviolence Institute, while the House version would reserve that seat for a lawyer chosen by the chief justice of the Supreme Court “in consultation with the court’s Committee on Racial and Ethnic Fairness and the Bar Association’s Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion.”

John Rossi, speaking on behalf of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers and the National Association of Government Employees, suggested another alternative to “codifying a nonprofit organization” into the law.

He suggested the appointment of a Department of Administration hearing officer, because they tend to be trained legal professionals in human resources procedure and labor law. More importantly they have no ties or professional interaction with law enforcement.”

On Thursday, Rep. Joe Batista announced plans to reintroduce his own LEOBOR bill. He explained it this way: “Rather than allow the LEOBOR panel to interrupt, distract and delay the implementation of the chief’s recommended punishment, the panel would still be available to the accused police officer, but as an appeal board while the chief’s recommendation takes effect immediately.”

Batista introduced identical legislation last year.