With time running out in the legislative session, a key Senate committee gave reluctant approval Wednesday to a House proposal that outlines when and how Vermont police are justified in using deadly force.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 3-2 to endorse the lower chamber’s version of S.119, which outlines a uniform use-of-force policy for law enforcement, but did add one small technical change — moving the effective date from January 2021 to July 1. 2021, for two central provisions.
The committee chair, Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, said he would have preferred for the House to wait until January to pass S.119, but he “can live with it” if it includes the pushed-out effective date.
“My preference would be to have public safety and other groups on board. I don’t see that as being possible,” Sears said. “I would not be surprised to see the governor veto this bill.”
Joining Sears in recommending approval of the bill were the committee vice chair, Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, and Sen. Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden. Sens. Jeanette White, D-Windham, and Alice Nitka, D-Windsor, voted against agreeing with the House.
The lower chamber passed S.119, along with another police reform measure, on Tuesday and the Senate is expected to take up the proposal Thursday.
The lower chamber’s version of S.119 amends the state’s “justifiable homicide” statute — which currently stipulates an individual can kill or wound a person legally under certain circumstances, including self-defense — and outlines how and when police are allowed to use deadly force, including chokeholds and other normally prohibited restraints.
Both House and Senate lawmakers have said the justifiable homicide law needs to be updated, with a specific focus on its provision that civil officers, members of the military and “private soldiers” who lawfully are called on to suppress “riot or rebellion” are protected from homicide charges.
The legislation, S.119, changes current law by stipulating that homicide is justifiable when committed by a law enforcement officer who is in compliance with the use-of-force policy laid out in the bill.
The bill also states that a police officer must immediately stop using deadly force as soon as an individual who has committed a crime is “under the officer’s control or no longer poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or to another person.”
The measure also requires the Department of Public Safety and the state’s executive director of racial equity to report to the Legislature next year on developing a statewide model policy on the use of force for all law enforcement agencies in Vermont.
By moving out the effective date from January to July, the judiciary committee intended to give the Department of Public Safety more time to bring its training protocols into line with the bill.
Benning proposed changing the effective date on Wednesday, saying that, while he understands law enforcement wanted more time to take issue with the bill, inaction was not a good choice.
On the one hand, Benning said, “I am not interested in pushing through a bill that places law enforcement in a terrible situation in not only trying to come up with reports, but reconstitute their entire training manual.”
On the other hand, “I’m not sure politically any of us is in a position to say ‘let’s do nothing,’” Benning said. “I think the issue is too important to just leave out there hanging for the next legislative session to begin.”
White said she had concerns about the legislative process, exclaiming that S.119, was changing so quickly in the House that it was hard to follow what was included and what wasn’t.
White also indicated she would like stronger agreement from law enforcement before passing the measure.
Criminal and racial-justice reforms have become a top priority for the Democratic-controlled Legislature in the wake of George Floyd’s death at police hands in Minneapolis and other examples of police brutality.
“I know this is politically, probably, suicide for me, but in my opinion we are responding to some really egregious cases here,” White said. “We’re letting ourselves make policy quickly because of the optics out there.”
While it remains to be seen how the Senate will vote on the bill, it is unlikely that Gov. Phil Scott will sign it.
Michael Schirling, commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, and other law enforcement officials in the state have said repeatedly that they are uncomfortable with language in S.119 and that it will cause uncertainty in how police officers are trained and defend themselves in dangerous situations.
“I have a hard time believing that we could produce a bill that they would be happy with,” Baruth said Wednesday. “What they’ve made clear again and again is that they would prefer to have it left to policymaking and training changes. I don’t think we’re in a place where that will be enough.”
