SPONSOR: Dogan
COMMITTEE ACTION: Voted "Do Pass" by the Standing Committee on Crime Prevention and Public Safety by a vote of 8 to 1.
This bill establishes various provisions related to the prohibition against discriminatory policing. The bill adds to the information about which an officer is required to report each time he or she stops a driver of a motor vehicle, and it adds to the Attorney General's responsibilities regarding the analyzing of annual reports compiled by each law enforcement agency relating to discriminatory policing.
The bill requires each law enforcement agency adopt a policy on discriminatory policing, as well as a policy eliminating discriminatory policing in the administration of consent searches, and it provides what such policy shall accomplish.
PROPONENTS: Supporters say that there are currently no consequences for law enforcement officers who engage in discriminatory policing. There is a concern for the safety of officers who police, too. The bad-actor officers endanger the lives of those who are trying to do good. Additionally, this adds a requirement that consent searches be consented to in writing or by audio or video recording. This will help protect the individual as well as the law enforcement officer conducting the search. Other states have enacted similar laws. It would be a step in the right direction to require all law enforcement agencies to have these sorts of policies.
Testifying for the bill were Representative Dogan; American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri; Justice Gatson Bowers; Thomas Bowers; Keith Brownel; Nimrod Chapel Jr., Missouri State National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; John Chasnoff; and Donald Love.
OPPONENTS: There was no opposition voiced to the committee.
Statutes affected: 590.650