Massachusetts House leaders will open the Senate police reform bill up to comment public this week, accepting written testimony until Friday morning, according to a hearing notice sent out Wednesday.
Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, a Boston Democrat who heads the House Committee on Ways and Means, and Rep. Claire Cronin, an Easton Democrat and chair of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, issued a notice soliciting public comments on S.2800. The polarizing police reform bill stalled in the Senate for several days and passed early Tuesday morning after an all-night session that centered around questions about public input and the impact of limiting qualified immunity for police officers.
Michlewitz and Cronin plan to accept written testimony via email until 11 a.m. Friday. They ask lawmakers and members of the public to email comments to Testimony.HWMJudiciary@mahouse.gov and include their name, organization and phone number.
While several components of the legislation have undergone a public hearing, the massive omnibus bill — combining proposals on facial recognition, body-worn cameras and qualified immunity — has not. The issue of qualified immunity, which was at the heart of the Senate debate earlier this week, was the focus of a bill filed by Rep. Mike Day in 2019. The bill, H.3277, did have a public hearing and received a favorable report earlier this year from the Joint Committee on the Judiciary.
Still, state legislators have pushed through other bills in response to the coronavirus pandemic without a public hearing, citing the urgency of responding to the global public health crisis.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo, who had previously said the House was finalizing its own police reform bill, said in a statement Monday he hoped to have a virtual hearing on the Senate bill this week. He said the House Ways and Means Committee and members of the House Judiciary Committee would jointly solicit feedback because the legislative session comes to a close on July 31.
“Despite a changed timetable, House leadership remains committed to working with the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus and House colleagues to take decisive action through omnibus legislation. We look forward to reviewing the Senate’s engrossed bill and the work ahead,” the Winthrop Democrat said.
Protests erupted across the country after the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man whose neck was knelt on for nearly nine minutes by a Minneapolis police officer. The incident was captured in a video that went viral. DeLeo and Senate President Karen Spilka pledged to act in the wake of Floyd’s death and Breonna Taylor’s death by Louisville police during a raid in her apartment.
Gov. Charlie Baker unveiled a bill to create a Peace Officer Standards and Training or POST system that would certify police officers. The bill would create monetary incentives for officers who obtain certain levels of training and require that the board overseeing certifications investigate officers who have been criminally convicted or had multiple sustained complaints.
Spilka created a racial justice advisory group, led by Sen. Sonia Chang Diaz and Senate Pro Tempore William Brownsberger. The advisory group drafted a much more expansive bill that not only created a certification system, but would also temporarily ban facial recognition, bar an officer from firing his gun at a fleeing vehicle, unless it’s to “prevent imminent harm,” make school resource officers optional and limit qualified immunity, the last of which was at the center of the Senate debate on the bill.
Sen. Ryan Fattman, a Sutton Republican, delayed voting on the bill last week because the bill did not have a public hearing and had almost no input from constituents, including police unions. The debate stretched on over the weekend and into an all-night session Monday and Tuesday morning with Sen. Dean Tran and other Republicans calling the bill politically motivated.
Law enforcement groups called for a pause on the Senate debate, which they say had no input from the Massachusetts Association of Minority Law Enforcement Officers. “The Senate is missing a tremendous opportunity to create uniform guidelines and training standards to improve policing into the future,” said Lawrence Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association.
The debate continued throughout Monday and into Tuesday morning. Sen. John Velis delivered his inaugural Senate speech late Monday night pushing for the Senate to hold off on limiting qualified immunity and studying that component of the bill instead. The Westfield Democrat called the criticism of law enforcement a “fad” of the present day and said changes to qualified immunity need a closer look.
“What I find curious about this debate is that I have yet to hear a law enforcement officer attempt to justify the horrific events in Minneapolis,” said Velis, one of seven senators who voted against the bill. “Nobody hates a bad cop more than a good cop. Each time I see officers in these ride alongs, their professionalism stands out to me. Police officers put their lives on the line to protect communities.”
Sen. Cindy Friedman, an Arlington Democrat, said limiting qualified immunity is about closing a loophole that enables problem cops to remain on the streets. She said lawmakers have the power to act quickly and fix any issues that come up in the future.
“Nobody is saying that we don’t support our cops. Nobody is saying that. I love my police forces in my town. They are decent people. Except for the two of them that the chief can’t get rid of because some little rule or law he didn’t follow,” Friedman said. “Why doesn’t that matter to us? We cannot say that what we do is because we don’t like our cops. That is not what we are saying. And I am troubled that keeps coming up. That is the dog whistle.”
The bill passed after 4 a.m. Tuesday, 30-7. In a statement, Spilka said the legislation “meets the urgency of this moment.”
The State Police Association of Massachusetts issued a statement Wednesday night thanking the seven state senators who voted against the bill and three who voted present.
“The votes cast do not detract from or reject police reforms, but rather focus attention on those that are sound, attainable, and well-reasoned,” the statement reads.
Now it’s up to the House to take up the bill, but not before Michlewitz and Cronin accept public testimony.
The Legislature has two weeks before the end of the two-year legislative session. Lawmakers said their true deadline is as soon as July 20 as they seek to give Gov. Charlie Baker a full 10 days to review a police reform bill.
Material from the State House News Service was used in this report.
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