State representatives from north Tulsa went one-for-two in getting their bills on police accountability and transparency to the House floor.
Rep. Monroe Nichols’ proposal to establish a Community Policing Standards Task Force passed committee and will be heard on the House floor.
House Bill 2946 would set up a nine-member task force to look at training on use of force by agencies across the state.
"Is the training similar? Should it be more similar? And what are the things that we may need to do as a state to either on one end, investing to make sure those police departments have the proper training, or, on the other end, making sure that there’s some sort of recourse for folks who find themselves on the wrong end of it," Nichols said.
Nichols said part of what pushed him to introduce the bill was public confusion after former Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby fatally shot Terence Crutcher. Shelby was acquitted of manslaughter in Crutcher's death, and her attorneys argued she followed her training despite Crutcher being unarmed and walking away from her.
The task force would issue recommendations by the end of 2022 to reduce the number of violent interactions between police and citizens.
"The hope is it makes everybody safer. It makes the job of the officer much safer, but it also makes folks in the community feel far more comfortable when they have those interactions. And hopefully, we can make those interactions far more positive than they sometimes end up being," Nichols said.
Rep. Regina Goodwin saw her bill on body camera use voted down last week by the same House committee.
"If an officer — with the intent to obstruct justice — turns off, disables, fails to turn on their camera, then the penalty for that — if convicted — would be a misdemeanor," Goodwin told the committee.
House Bill 3515 failed on a 12–1 vote despite being amended to defer to departments' policies and training on body camera use.
