Senate Bill 647 allows police to hide behind their shields
[align=left]not a sign you're living in a free country...but this is America, we can have tyranny as long as we still call it freedom![/align]
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[align=left]http://www.petoskeynews.com/articles.../opinion01.txt[/align]
[align=left]Senate Bill 647 allows police to hide behind their shields[/align]
Friday, November 4, 2005 1:54 PM EST
A piece of legislation is working its way through Michigan government which would shield the very people - whom we must hold to highest standards - from public review.
How can the public protect itself from bad law enforcement people and practices when a law is specifically designed to keep information about their crimes and abuses secret?
Known as the ??Garrity? legislation (based on a New Jersey case), Senate Bill 647 sponsored by Alan Sanborn, R-Richmond, would prohibit the use and disclosure of information extracted from a law enforcement officer ordered to disclose under penalty of losing his or her job and/or waiving their constitutional right against self-incrimination.
Under this bill, ??An involuntary statement made by a law enforcement officer, and any information derived directly or indirectly from that involuntary statement, shall not be used against the law enforcement officer in a criminal proceeding.?
Further, ??An involuntary statement made by a law enforcement officer is a confidential communication that is not open to public inspection.?
It means that the bad cop - or a good cop- can't be punished for telling the truth under duress, and that the public can't know anything about it.
We along with media outlets around the state have serious concerns about this type of legislation. Some of the potential pitfalls, as outlined by the Michigan Press Association, include:
- This bill could shield police from public oversight, and likely put all personnel records in a lock box.
- It creates a new public act to specify that when an employer is a criminal justice agency and the employee is a police officer, statements made by the employee under threat of discharge for remaining silent could not be released.
- This bill will create a wall that would keep information about police officers who commit crimes themselves from being released to the press and the public.
- If police now, then who later? All government employees? Teachers?
Here is a real-world example, provided by the Michigan Press Association, of what will happen if this bill becomes law: Remember the Lincoln Navigator scandal in Detroit, where the mayor's wife was cruising around in a vehicle meant for drug enforcement? Under this bill, none of that abuse, documented by the government, could have seen the light of day.
There is simply nothing so important, no investigation so critical, that should allow police to operate in total secret and without oversight. This bill would devastate government and the taxpayers' ability to hold police agencies accountable. Police cover-ups could be the rule and we'd never know about them.
This bill, more than protecting one specific sector of employees, casts a blackout curtain where light must shine its brightest. No one else has the power and control over our lives as law enforcement does. Therefore as a society we cannot afford to shield police from public scrutiny. To do so is to welcome police abuse, to invite a police state.
SB 647 would give police that shield.
The legislation is still in committee and with just a bit of leadership foresight ought to die an ignoble death there. To be sure it does, contact your elected representatives in Lansing and demand this bill be scrapped.
Contact: Sen. Jason Allen, R-Traverse City, (866) 525 5637, e-mail at [email protected];105th District House Rep. Kevin Elsenheimer, R- Bellaire, (877) 536-4105, e-mail at [email protected].; 107th District House Rep. Gary McDowell, D-Rudyard, call (888) REP GARY, e-mail at [email protected].
