The Law Enforcement Accountability Task Force approves another four recommendations for lawmakers to consider.
The Transparency & Accountability Subcommittee presented seven recommendations, but the full task force only backed four of them Thursday.
One recommendation calls for restructuring and expanding the Council on Police Training to include more civilians and provide more authority in decertifying a law enforcement officer.
Task Force member James Liguori says there’s one piece within that recommendation he feels is extremely important.
"To remove the Council on Police Training from under the auspices of the Delaware State Police and place it with the Department of Safety and Homeland Security," said Liguori.
Another recommendation is creation of a law enforcement officer disciplinary database, and Liguori explains what it should include.
"Date of the incident, type of complaint, the age, sex, and race of the officer, complaintant age, sex, and race. Type of incident, type of force used. Whether the complaint was substantiated or unsubstantiated, and result in disciplinary action if substantiated," he said.
A second version of a law enforcement officer disciplinary database was also passed.
Liguori says the final recommendation involves decertification decisions.
"We've asked you to consider sending to the legislature our recommendation to increase the public's access to already public decertification decisions made by the Council on Police Training by requiring such decisions be placed into a state repository not just the national decertification database," said Liguori.
The task force balked at creating civilian review boards for local law enforcement agencies, and addressing CBA and FOIA issues interfering with transparency and disciplinary proceedings.
It also passed on a recommendation that would have reviewed and amended the law enforcement officers’ Bill of Rights to increase transparency and accountability in the police disciplinary process.
