Arrest or summons; charge for misdemeanor at discretion of law-enforcement officer. (HB436)
Introduced By
Del. Jackson Miller (R-Manassas)
Progress
✓ |
Introduced |
✗ |
Passed Committee |
✓ |
Passed House |
☐ |
Passed Senate |
☐ |
Signed by Governor |
☐ |
Became Law |
Description
Misdemeanor arrest or summons at discretion of law-enforcement officer. Gives a law-enforcement officer the choice of issuing a summons and releasing the person or arresting him for Class 1 and 2 misdemeanors. Under current law, the law-enforcement officer must release the person on a summons for most Class 1 and 2 misdemeanors unless the person fails to stop the unlawful act or indicates that he will not appear as directed in the summons. The bill also requires the officer to arrest the person if he fails to stop the unlawful act; currently arrest is discretionary when the person fails to stop the unlawful act. Read the Bill »
Outcome
Bill Has Failed
History
| Date | Action |
|---|---|
| 01/04/2008 | Committee |
| 01/04/2008 | Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/08 081015640 |
| 01/04/2008 | Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice |
| 01/16/2008 | Assigned Courts sub: Criminal |
| 01/17/2008 | Impact statement from DPB (HB436) |
| 02/04/2008 | Reported from Courts of Justice (19-Y 2-N) (see vote tally) |
| 02/04/2008 | Referred to Committee on Appropriations |
| 02/06/2008 | Assigned App. sub: Public Safety (Sherwood) |
| 02/08/2008 | Reported from Appropriations (24-Y 0-N) (see vote tally) |
| 02/09/2008 | Read first time |
| 02/11/2008 | Read second time and engrossed |
| 02/12/2008 | Read third time and passed House (87-Y 12-N) |
| 02/12/2008 | VOTE: --- PASSAGE (87-Y 12-N) (see vote tally) |
| 02/12/2008 | Communicated to Senate |
| 02/13/2008 | Constitutional reading dispensed |
| 02/13/2008 | Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice |
| 02/14/2008 | Assigned Courts sub: Criminal |
| 03/03/2008 | Left in Courts of Justice (15-Y 0-N) |
Comments
This bill gives officers on the street unfettered discretion either to arrest or summons a person who is alleged to be committing a class 2 or class 1 misdemeanor. Currently, state law says that an officer must issue a summons unless he reasonably believes that the person involved is a danger to self or others, won't stop committing the alleged offense or won't show up in response to the summons. There is no predicate factual basis for making this radical change in the law, nor is there any means by which the discretionary action by officers can be tracked to determine if there is evidence of biased-based policing resulting from this delegation of unguided decision-making.
An identical proposal was defeated in the legislature last year, and it should be defeated again this year.
This bill is contrary to good policy - it will diminish Fourth Amendment and privacy rights in Virginia and give police officers the discretion to arrest and search an individual in hundreds of new scenarios.