By Isabella Crow and Michael Kochler
America is reaching a critical point in its reckoning with law enforcement. As with any hot-button issue, the solutions have been polarizing: on the left, cries for racial justice are intertwined with calls to restructure policing; the most conservative policies advocate for the expanding of department budgets and police authority. However, at the imagined middle ground of this debate, is policy that aims to make police officers more accountable to the public they are bound to protect and serve. A Conservative might admit that accountability is a commonsense approach—a Progressive might call it the bare minimum.
Colin Schmitt calls it a bill he will vote “NO” on.
S.03595 established the Law Enforcement Misconduct Investigative Office, designed to provide avenues for recourse after police malpractice. Schmitt voted no.
S.08496 authorizes Disclosure of Law Enforcement Disciplinary Records which would prevent “bad apples” from being continually promoted or employed. Schmitt voted no.
A.10609 required courts to compile and publish data on misdemeanors and violations and law enforcement departments on arrest-related deaths. The law will lead to a public record of the number of arrest-related deaths; the race, ethnicity, age, and sex of the individual; the location where the death occurred; and a brief description of the circumstances surrounding the arrest-related death. Unsurprisingly, Schmitt voted no.
S.06601 required Police Officers to Provide Medical and Mental Health Attention required to persons under arrest or otherwise in custody and would allow a person who was denied such attention to pursue civil litigation against the offending officer. This bill became all the more relevant in the wake of Daniel Prude’s death in Rochester. Schmitt voted no.
A.05045 amends criminal procedure laws to waive certain surcharges and fees for defendants under the age of 21. Inexplicably, Colin and the entire Republican caucus voted no.
The common thread between all of this legislation is that it was designed to provide the same amount of accountability from police officers as we expect from the rest of society. These bills would make our communities safer and our law enforcement stronger; and yet, as a knee-jerk Republican reaction, Schmitt voted no on any bill that even hinted at police reform.
