ARLINGTON, Va. — The Virginia Senate approved wide-ranging police reform legislation Thursday that would prohibit the use of chokeholds, restrict no-knock search warrants, and expand the grounds to decertify law enforcement officials who commit misconduct.
The legislation passed along party lines, and includes many of the measures protesters around the country have called for since the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Democrats hailed it as a landmark achievement they said preserves public safety while promoting civil liberties and addressing urgent needs.
“The Senate got together well over two and a half months ago to walk through some issues that we felt were important to address in the special session in light of everything that had occurred since not just George Floyd’s death, but also Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, essentially much of what has been occurring in the last decade or so,” Chief bill sponsor Sen. Mamie Locke (D) said.
Locke said they need to put these protections in place to ensure citizens and communities are safe.
“Given the fact that we are in a climate right now where there's so much tension in this country and attention is being fueled from the very top of our government, we have got to have this reform,” Locke said.
Other aspects of the bill would require police to issue warnings before firing weapons and prohibit shooting at moving motor vehicles.
Sen. Barbara Favola (D) is a sponsor to the bill and called it transformational to the culture of policing.
“They're given enormous authority and they have enormous responsibility, and for the most part we believe police attempts to exercise that responsibility in a fashion that respects the constitutional rights of everybody, but we have seen examples where there have been police who have abused their authority,” Favola said.
Both Favola and Locke said that SB 5030 is not an anti-police bill.
“This is not anti-police by any means," Locke said. "We have wonderful law enforcement officers out there, but we've got to seriously weed out those that are not."
Police reform bills in the Commonwealth have drawn criticism from the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police. The VACP released a statement Thursday about the police reform bills in the Commonwealth.
“It has been extremely disappointing to see most of these legislative proposals developed with little or no input from Virginia law enforcement,” VACP 1st Vice President Maggie DeBoard said in the statement. “We provided a detailed document of proposals to the Governor and General Assembly in June and have reached out to legislators throughout this special session. Only a handful of legislators really worked with us, but an overwhelming number had little interest in hearing our concerns.”
The bill also:
- Calls for the Criminal Justice Services Board (CJS) to adopt statewide professional standards of conduct
- Requires sheriffs and police chiefs to notify the CJS Board within 48 hours of finding that an officer, deputy or jail guard has engaged in serious misconduct.
- Prohibits police from using deadly force unless they believe deadly force is necessary to protect themselves or others, provides a warning before using deadly force, has a reason for using deadly force or exhausted any of the previous options.
- Bans officers from firing into a moving vehicle, unless lives are threatened.
- Requires that officers render aid or intervene if another officer is using excessive force or unlawful use of force.
- Expands required data collection for traffic stops or pedestrian stops.
- Prohibits State Police or any other law enforcement agency from accepting grants or loans of personal property from the U.S. Department of Defense for use in law enforcement activities.
- Requires every police chief to provide the Commonwealth's Attorney access to all records on wrongful arrests, use of force complaints or other complaints where a person has been deprived of rights.
- Requires that one member of a civil rights organization and two members of community-based organizations be appointed to the Criminal Justice Services Board.
- Decreases the number of representatives on the Virginia Sheriffs' Association and Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police from two representatives to one representative.
- Requires the Department of Criminal Justice Services to develop curriculum and lesson plans for minimum entry-level, in-service and advanced training standards.
Some Republican senators cast the bill passed Thursday as a disaster for police officers that would empower criminals and cost innocent lives. GOP lawmakers said Democrats were unfairly questioning the tactics police use when they have to make split-second decisions in high-stress environments.
“How dare us to sit here and question when we’re just Monday morning quarterbacks,” Sen. Amanda Chase, a Republican who is also running for governor, said.
The bill will head to the Democratic-led House.
The special legislative session, which began last month, was called by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam to address the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and to consider proposed police and criminal justice reforms in the aftermath of Floyd’s killing.