Gov. Phil Scott allowed a reform measure that sets parameters for police use of deadly force to become law Wednesday evening.
Scott, whose administration had cited concerns with the legislation, S.119, decided to let it become law without his signature. The governor also signed another police reform proposal, S.124, Wednesday which updates and expands police training protocol. Both measures were drafted by lawmakers during the special Covid-19 budget session this fall.
“2020 has reminded us that systemic racism is deeply rooted in our nation’s institutions,” Scott said in his letter to lawmakers Wednesday.
“We have acted in this area, but Vermont is not immune, and we must do more,” he added.
With the governor’s decision to support these two bills, Vermont has now enacted three sweeping law enforcement reform bills since the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis earlier this year.
The governor signed the less controversial of the two measures, S.124.
The bill includes a moratorium on the use of facial recognition technology by police until approved by the General Assembly and requires the Vermont Criminal Justice Council to craft a statewide policy for the use of body cameras in the upcoming months.
Vermont now joins just a handful of states and municipalities — including California and Somerville, Massachusetts — that prohibits police from using facial recognition technology.
Until an updated body camera policy is presented to the Legislature, the bill also requires that law enforcement agencies use the justice council’s 2016 policy, which sets rules for training and accurate documentation of police interaction with citizens.
While the governor signed that measure, his decision to allow S.119 to become law without his signature signals that he does not agree with everything in the legislation.
Scott said the bill, which was written over the course of a month this summer, was “hastily crafted” and that there was “insufficient opportunity for the full Legislature” to hear from Vermont’s communities of color and law enforcement officials.
The governor called on lawmakers to refine the legislation when they return to the Statehouse in January 2021.
“I believe with more time – and more testimony from all impacted communities – this bill can be improved before it goes into effect,” Scott said.
Michael Schirling, commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, and other law enforcement officials in the state have repeatedly said they were uncomfortable with language in S.119 because it could cause uncertainty in how police officers are trained.
The measure could also impact how police defend themselves in dangerous situations, Schirling said.
In Scott’s message to lawmakers, he mirrored the commissioner’s concerns and called for language to be clarified in 2021.
In the final days before the special fall session of the Legislature adjourned, the Vermont Senate made a last minute change, which the House agreed with, pushing out the effective date from January 2021 to July of next year.
The amendment gives the Department of Public Safety more time to bring police training protocols in line with the bill.
In an interview last week, House Speaker Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, said that moving out the effective date would give lawmakers time to work on the bill even if the governor decided to kill it. Lawmakers may still take it up again in January to make additional changes before it takes effect.
While S.119, outlines how and when police are allowed to use deadly force, including chokeholds and other normally prohibited restraints, it also amends the state’s current “justifiable homicide” statute.
As high profile cases of police brutality roiled the country this spring and summer, Vermont lawmakers had said the justifiable homicide law needs to be updated, with a specific focus on a provision for civil officers, members of the military and “private soldiers” who are protected from homicide charges when they are lawfully called on to suppress “riot or rebellion.”
The bill stipulates that homicide is justifiable when committed by a law enforcement officer who is in compliance with the use-of-force policy laid out in the measure.
Under the new law, a police officer must immediately stop using deadly force as soon as an individual who has committed a crime is “under the officer’s control or no longer poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or to another person.”
The Department of Public Safety and the state’s executive director of racial equity are now mandated to report to the Legislature next year on the development of a statewide model policy on the use of force for all law enforcement agencies in Vermont.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Scott allows a bill restricting police use of force tactics to be enacted.