Recapping the CSG West Virtual Annual Meeting
By Mary Elizabeth Robertson, The Council of State Governments
Following national outcry regarding the unjust death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer, Americans on both sides of the aisle have petitioned for police reform. The Council of State Governments (CSG) has responded in one way by hosting a panel on The Role of Legislatures in Police Reform during CSG West Annual Meeting held on July 29.
“Our system of separation of powers and federalism creates tensions between players in the system,” said Carl Reynolds, The Council of State Governments Justice Center senior legal and policy advisor, said. “We have to reach across those boundaries and engage in conscious, respectful collaboration so that we can achieve policy solutions and wise public policy.”
Since Floyd’s death, 26 states have introduced 303 bills regarding oversight and data, policing alternatives and collaboration, technology, training and use of force.
Washington state Rep. John Lovick previously served as an elected Sheriff in Washington and refers to law enforcement as “the family business,” due to many family members serving in the field.
“My biggest challenge in dealing with my colleagues, is avoid overreacting,” he said. “We have to realize even though George Floyd was not given due process, the officer, as bad as the situation was, he should still be afforded due process. If we lose that, we lose our system of governance.”
Lovick served as Speaker of the House urges other legislators to view police reform through the lens of “what is good policy?,” he said. “We are not about defunding police officers. We want to reimagine our police departments.”
Colorado state Rep. Leslie Herod has been working on legislation for police reform before the death of George Floyd.
“All of our police officers are not bad,” she said. “I have been working on law enforcement reform after what happened to Elijah McClain and De’Von Bailey.”
Herod explained McClain was not even suspected of a crime and was killed by police while walking home in Aurora, Colo. Bailey was killed by police while running away. Both men were killed in 2019, inspiring her to create legislation in the form of a police accountability bill. The bill was signed into law in June.
Utah state Rep. Eric Hutchings co-sponsored a bill that limits the use of chokeholds and prevents police from being trained in using chokeholds.
“CSG has done wonderful work in this space, and quite frankly has helped informed a lot of what we do in Utah,” Hutchings said.
Hutchings said HB5001 passed both house and senate floors because of its commonsense appeal. Hutchings said this research provided more context for the CSG system-wide strategy of Behavioral Health Diversion Interventions, or the goal of diverting people with mental illness from the justice system and into community-based treatment and support services.
We need to find meaningful, realistic alternatives to incarceration and to arrest because too often when somebody comes in contact with law enforcement, they know for a fact where they are going to end up — they are going to jail.
Utah state rep. Eric Hutchings
Hutchings discussed diversions with a judge in Utah and the options for criminal offenders is limited.
“We need to find meaningful, realistic alternatives to incarceration and to arrest because too often when somebody comes in contact with law enforcement, they know for a fact where they are going to end up-they are going to jail,” he said.
The CSG Justice Center works to transform public safety and criminal justice policy by working to expand the acceptance of reentry as a bipartisan policy objective, focusing on the intersection of behavioral health and criminal justice and allowing states to examine public safety policy through data with the justice reinvestment process.