A state senate version of the bill would have removed qualified immunity for individual police officers, potentially exposing them to civil lawsuits. This provision was eliminated from the house version of the bill.
Massachusetts state senators agreed Monday to scale back restrictions they had sought to put on the use of facial recognition software by law enforcement and to limit the influence of a civilian led commission over police training.
Under the new rules officers will be required to explain their actions, respond to questions, “provide a clear warning that force will be used” and give someone “a reasonable opportunity” to respond.
One agreement, signed Monday by SFPOA President Tony Montoya and SFPD Chief Bill Scott, said the union agreed to police redirecting 17 types of calls for service to mental health or other professionals.
Lawmakers in Massachusetts are set to vote on a police reform bill that would make some of the biggest changes in years to law enforcement oversight and rules in the state.
The consultants will likely face resistance from the rank-and-file, said Atlanta Police Union president Jason Segura. Officers have felt under siege since former Officer Garrett Rolfe was fired.
“They're [Biden-Harris] very mindful of the need for not only law and order, which somehow or another has become a dirty word in this country, but law and order and justice. What’s being asked for with criminal-justice reform is reform of the criminal-justice system. So you can have law and order, but you can have justice at the same time, and I think the president-elect is uniquely qualified to fill that bill,” Bratton said.
The governor of New Hampshire issued an executive order Wednesday to implement multiple reforms in police operations and training including the use of body cameras for state police troopers as well as recruitment of minorities into police ranks.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday signed a number of police reform bills that ban chokeholds and carotid restraint techniques and allow the state's Justice Department (DOJ) to probe police shootings.
The city of Louisville will pay a record-breaking $12 million to the family of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old woman fatally shot by police in her apartment earlier this year.