Bill > HB5055

Introduced Session

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

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Betsy Carr (D)*,  Charniele Herring (D)*,  Sam Rasoul (D)*,  Don Scott (D)*,  Dawn Adams (D),  Lamont Bagby (D),  Jeffrey Bourne (D),  David Bulova (D),  Joshua Cole (D),  Kelly Convirs-Fowler (D),  Wendy Gooditis (D),  Elizabeth Guzmán (D),  C.E. Hayes (D),  Dan Helmer (D),  Patrick Hope (D),  Mark Keam (D),  Kaye Kory (D),  Paul Krizek (D),  Mark Levine (D),  Joseph Lindsey (D),  Alfonso Lopez (D),  Delores McQuinn (D),  Kathleen Murphy (D),  Kenneth Plum (D),  Marcia Price (D),  Ibraheem Samirah (D),  Shelly Simonds (D),  Kathy Tran (D),  Vivian Watts (D),  Rodney Willett (D), 

Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0029) (on 10/28/2020)

Official Document