· House Bill 5049, sponsored by Delegate Helmer, reduces the militarization of police by prohibiting law enforcement from obtaining or using specified equipment, including grenades, weaponized aircraft, and high-caliber firearms. Governor Northam amended the bill to clarify that law enforcement agencies may seek waivers to use restricted equipment for search and rescue missions.
· House Bill 5109, sponsored by Delegate Hope, creates statewide minimum training standards for law enforcement officers, including training on awareness of racism, the potential for biased profiling, and de-escalation techniques. Governor Northam made technical amendments to this bill to align it with Senate Bill 5030 (above). House Bill 5104, sponsored by Delegate Price, mandates law enforcement agencies and jails request the prior employment and disciplinary history of new hires.
· House Bill 5108, sponsored by Delegate Guzman, expands and diversifies the Criminal Justice Services Board, ensuring that the perspectives of social justice leaders, people of color, and mental health providers are represented in the state’s criminal justice policymaking.
· House Bill 5051, sponsored by Delegate Simon, strengthens the process by which law enforcement officers can be decertified and allows the Criminal Justice Services Board to initiate decertification proceedings.
· House Bill 5069, sponsored by Delegate Carroll Foy, limits the circumstances in which law enforcement officers may use neck restraints.
· House Bill 5029, sponsored by Delegate McQuinn, requires law enforcement officers intervene when they witness another officer engaging or attempting to engage in the use of excessive force.
· House Bill 5045, sponsored by Delegate Delaney, makes it a Class 6 felony for law enforcement officers to “carnally know” someone they have arrested or detained, an inmate, parolee, probationer, pretrial defendant, or post-trial offender, if the officer is in a position of authority over such individual.
· House Bill 5055 and Senate Bill 5035, sponsored by Leader Herring and Senator Hashmi, respectively, empower localities to create civilian law enforcement review boards. These new laws also permit civilian review boards the authority to issue subpoenas and make binding disciplinary decisions.
· Senate Bill 5014, sponsored by Senator Edwards, which mandates the creation of minimum crisis intervention training standards and requires law enforcement officers complete crisis intervention training.
· Signed Senate Bill 5018, sponsored by Senator Bell, which allows individuals serving a sentence for certain felony offenses who are terminally ill to petition the Parole Board for conditional release.
· Amended House Bill 5148 and Senate Bill 5034, sponsored by Delegate Scott and Senator Boysko, respectively, which allow for increased earned sentencing credits. The Governor proposed a six-month delay to give the Department of Corrections sufficient time to implement this program.
As a conservative resident of Virginia, what Gov. Northam is doing to us makes me want to projectile vomit.
As a conservative resident of Virginia, what Gov. Northam is doing to us makes me want to projectile vomit.
Most of this sounds reasonable.
No-knocks should be banned except for hostage-type situations.
That said, the raid on Taylor’s home was not conducted as a no-knock, apparently. They knocked and announced, the boyfriend opened fire when the police breached, and we know the rest.
While I agree that no-knocks should be banned, I also know that governor black face is solving a different issue than the one he cites. Just like most politicians.
If they are really interested in avoiding conflict, how about eliminating searches altogether and just ask the bad guys if they have anything incriminating in their home? If a search is required, how about giving the bad guys a 24-hour notice?
“House Bill 5045, sponsored by Delegate Delaney, makes it a Class 6 felony for law enforcement officers to “carnally know” someone they have arrested or detained, an inmate, parolee, probationer, pretrial defendant, or post-trial offender, if the officer is in a position of authority over such individual.”
Are you kidding me? Those things weren’t illegal before? Hard to believe.
Man, how many times have I read this exact line? The ol' propaganda press really has their talking points down.
The ban on no-knock warrants is justified, and overdue IMO. This is an example of a stopped clock being inadvertently correct.