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The Indiana House unanimously approved a bill Tuesday that will hold police more accountable and significantly improve their training.
Rep. Greg Steuerwald (R-Avon), the bill’s author, said all police will now have to undergo de-escalation training. The legislation also includes $70 million to improve facilities at the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy, which trains a majority of police across the state.
“Everything begins with training, Steuerwald said. The best training we can have will produce the best officers.”
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(Indianapolis, Ind.) – A bill supporting local law enforcement is one step closer to becoming law.
Legislation co-authored by State Rep. Cindy Ziemke (R-Batesville) and State Rep. Randy Lyness (R-West Harrison) unanimously passed through the Indiana House of Representatives this week.
House Bill 1006 would require full employment record sharing between police departments to identify bad actors, provide additional flexibility to the Indiana Law Enforcement Training Board in order to address significant officer misconduct, and require de-escalation training for new recruits and current officers.
“This bill is a positive step to increase transparency and support our local departments who work hard to serve and protect our communities, Lyness said. “This will help departments ensure they’re hiring the best candidates and give the training board more tools to address misconduct. These are positi
Law enforcement reform bill advances with bipartisan support
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February 1, 2021
A bipartisan bill aimed at increasing police accountability and enacting criminal justice reform advanced to the Indiana Senate after lawmakers unanimously approved the measure in a House vote Tuesday.
House Bill 1006, co-authored by more than 80 Republican and Democratic legislators, includes provisions for mandatory de-escalation training, misdemeanor penalties for officers who turn off body cameras with intent to conceal, and bans on chokeholds in certain circumstances.
If adopted, the bill will also establish a procedure for the law enforcement training board to decertify officers who commit misconduct, and would ease the sharing of officers’ employment records between police departments, thus helping to identify “bad actors” and keep them from moving jobs.
Indiana General Assembly considers bills to reform the police and bills to halt change Elizabeth DePompei, Indianapolis Star
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For the first time since civil unrest erupted in Indianapolis and elsewhere across the country in response to police killings of Black Americans, the Indiana legislature is considering measures that would impact policing in the state.
The deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, along with Dreasjon Reed and McHale Rose in Indianapolis, all at the hands of police, resulted in demands to reform policing everything from banning chokeholds to defunding police departments.
The four officers involved in Floyd s death face criminal charges. Earlier this month, the Marion County Prosecutor declined to file charges in Rose s death. And in Reed s case, a grand jury declined to indict the officer who fatally shot him.