Law-enforcement civilian oversight bodies; localities may establish, duties, effective date. (HB5055)

Introduced By

Del. Charniele Herring (D-Alexandria) with support from 15 copatrons, whose average partisan position is:

Those copatrons are Del. Dawn Adams (D-Richmond), Del. David Bulova (D-Fairfax), Del. Betsy Carr (D-Richmond), Del. Josh Cole (D-Stafford), Del. Kelly Fowler (D-Virginia Beach), Del. Wendy Gooditis (D-Clarke), Del. Kaye Kory (D-Falls Church), Del. Mark Levine (D-Alexandria), Del. Alfonso Lopez (D-Arlington), Del. Kathleen Murphy (D-McLean), Del. Ken Plum (D-Reston), Del. Cia Price (D-Newport News), Del. Sam Rasoul (D-Roanoke), Del. Ibraheem Samirah (D-Herndon), Del. Rodney Willett (D-Henrico)

Description

Law-enforcement civilian oversight bodies. Authorizes a locality to establish a law-enforcement civilian oversight body that may (i) receive, investigate, and issue findings on complaints from civilians regarding conduct of law-enforcement officers and civilian employees; (ii) investigate and issue findings on incidents, including the use of force by a law-enforcement officer, death or serious injury to any person held in custody, serious abuse of authority or misconduct, allegedly discriminatory stops, and other incidents regarding the conduct of law-enforcement officers or civilian employees; (iii) make binding disciplinary determinations in cases that involve serious breaches of departmental and professional standards; (iv) investigate policies, practices, and procedures of law-enforcement agencies and make recommendations regarding changes to such policies, practices, and procedures; (v) review all investigations conducted internally by law-enforcement agencies and issue findings regarding the accuracy, completeness, and impartiality of such investigations and the sufficiency of any discipline resulting from such investigations; (vi) request reports of the annual expenditures of law-enforcement agencies and make budgetary recommendations; (vii) make public reports on the activities of the law-enforcement civilian oversight body; and (viii) undertake any other duties as reasonably necessary for the law-enforcement civilian oversight body to effectuate its lawful purpose to effectively oversee the law-enforcement agencies as authorized by the locality. Such oversight bodies are not authorized to oversee sheriff's departments. The bill provides that a law-enforcement officer who is subject to a binding disciplinary determination may file a grievance requesting a final hearing pursuant to the locality's local grievance procedures. The bill also provides that a retired law-enforcement officer may serve on such law-enforcement civilian oversight body as an advisory, nonvoting ex officio member. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2021, and is identical to SB 5035. Read the Bill »

Outcome

History