Misdemeanor arrest or summons; gives law-enforcement officer choice of issuing summons & releasing. (HB2136)
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 |
|---|---|
| 01/13/2009 | Committee |
| 01/13/2009 | Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/14/09 098481640 |
| 01/13/2009 | Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice |
| 01/19/2009 | Impact statement from DPB (HB2136) |
| 01/20/2009 | Assigned Courts sub: Criminal |
| 01/21/2009 | Subcommittee recommends reporting |
| 02/04/2009 | Reported from Courts of Justice (15-Y 6-N) (see vote tally) |
| 02/06/2009 | Read first time |
| 02/08/2009 | Passed by for the day |
| 02/09/2009 | Read second time and engrossed |
| 02/10/2009 | Read third time and passed House (69-Y 25-N) |
| 02/10/2009 | VOTE: --- PASSAGE (69-Y 25-N) (see vote tally) |
| 02/11/2009 | Constitutional reading dispensed |
| 02/11/2009 | Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice |
| 02/24/2009 | Left in Courts of Justice |
Comments
This is a VACOLAO legislative priority. VACOLAO opposes this bill. Having failed in two previous legislative sessions to convince his colleagues to pass legislation changing state law to give every police officer unfettered discretion to decide whether to take a person who commits a state law misdemeanor offense into custody and or simply issue a summons, Miller is back with the same bill again this year. Giving each officer unlimited and unfettered discretion to decide whom to take into custody is an invitation to bias-based policing, particularly since all persons taken into custody are now subject to an immigration status check.
This is a naked invitation to police to discriminatory enforcement. The current law limiting when an officer can arrest and take custody of people is there for a good reason. Don't throw that away so that the police can arbitrarily target people for harassment, or simply take out a grudge on someone by taking them to jail without good reason.