LEOBOR endangers everyday Rhode Islanders

"One study found that the minority of states [with] LEOBOR account for 54% of police shootings of civilians, 51% of police shootings of Black civilians, & 80% of police shootings of Latino civilians."

On Thursday evening the Rhode Island House Judiciary Committee heard testimony on three bills relating to the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights (LEOBOR). Two of the bills, H7263 from Representative Raymond Hull (Democrat, District 6, Providence) and H7313 from Representative Jose Batista (Democrat, District 12, Providence) would amend LEOBOR, while a third bill from Representative Jennifer Stewart (Democrat, District 59, Pawtucket), H7198, would completely repeal the statute. The Rhode Island Senate passed a fourth bill after a perfunctory hearing in Senate Judiciary and has been sent to the House.

The hearing was front-loaded with advocates for the police and police unions and sparsely attended by members of the public. Much of the commentary has been covered here, here, here, here, here, and here. But Pawtucket resident Benjamin Evans brought new insights, and new data in the form of a study from Richard Deshay Elliott from Johns Hopkins University that seems to show a correlation between police shootings and states with LEOBOR statutes that protect police officers from accountability.

The study concludes:

“The findings clearly indicate that there are substantially greater hurdles to police accountability and transparency in states with LEOBOR in effect. 3 of the 7 states that do not report their decertified transparency in states with LEOBOR in effect.

“Three of the seven states that do not report their decertified officers are LEOBOR states (California, Delaware, and Rhode Island)​. States with LEOBOR, on average, have significantly higher incarceration rates and slightly higher police budgets. Only 17 states have LEOBOR in effect (​33% of states, including D.C)​ and these 17 states account for:

• 54% of police shootings of civilians

• 51% of police shootings of Black civilians

• 80% of police shootings of Latino civilians

• 44% of police decertifications

• 43% of police officers charged for on-duty shootings

“Based on these statistics, it is apparent that LEOBOR is a detriment to police accountability and transparency to the general public, and allows police officers to avoid scrutiny for misconduct up to and including [the] murder of civilians while on duty.”

Here’s the written testimony from Benjamin Evans:

“Rhode Island is alone among our neighboring states to have a LEOBOR. Police in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, and all the New England states can serve and protect without being insulated from accountability by special statutory protections. For most police officers in the United States, the due process afforded by the United States Constitution and our various state constitutions is sufficient. This due process should be sufficient for Rhode Island's police officers as well.

”We already know that police officers are rarely held accountable by our legal system when they injure or even murder Americans. Here in Rhode Island, we have watched as Providence Police Officer Jeann Lugo punched a woman in the face on the steps of our State House as a local reporter filmed him, and was acquitted in Warwick District Court by a judge who cited his role as a police officer (although he was off duty at the time) and his “duty to maintain the public order,” as justification. Officer Lugo will continue to serve as a police officer in Providence despite the recommendations of Chief Oscar Perez to fire him and received only a 10-day suspension following a hearing under LEOBOR.

“We have seen Pawtucket Police Officer Daniel Dolan acquitted in court after shooting an unarmed teenager outside a pizza shop in West Greenwich while off-duty. Thanks to LEOBOR, the City of Pawtucket was unable to fire Officer Dolan before he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and threatening officers at the Coventry Police Department. He eventually voluntarily resigned while the LEOBOR process continued.

“In one of Rhode Island's most infamous cases, a Black police officer, Cornel Young Jr. (May 19, 1970 – January 28, 2000), known to his friends as “Jai,” was fatally shot six times by two fellow police officers - Carlos Saraiva and Michael Solitro III on January 28, 2000 - while he tried to break up a scuffle while off duty. The police officers who shot him were never charged. Officer Saraiva had shot and seriously wounded another young man of color only three months before shooting Cornel Young, yet was cleared by the Providence police and put back on the street without being disciplined.

“We have LEOBOR to thank for having these violent and dangerous people employed as police officers in Rhode Island.

”There is evidence that LEOBOR endangers everyday Rhode Islanders by creating a dynamic where police assume they will evade accountability for dangerous misconduct. One study found that the minority of states that have a LEOBOR account for 54% of police shootings of civilians, 51% of police shootings of Black civilians, and 80% of police shootings of Latino civilians. A copy of that study from Johns Hopkins University is available here or here.) States with a LEOBOR have seen high-profile tragic killings by police, such as Maryland, (before LEOBoR was repealed in 2021) where Freddie Gray was killed, Texas, where Sandra Bland was killed, Kentucky, where Breonna Taylor was killed, and Minnesota, where George Floyd was killed. Let’s not wait until someone is tragically killed by the police in our state to repeal LEOBOR.

”Even in cases where police officers are convicted of serious crimes, LEOBOR forces our cities and towns to continue to pay bad cops. For example, in May 2009, Twin River Casino security cameras filmed Lincoln Police Officer Edward Krawetz violently kicking a seated, handcuffed woman in the head. He was charged and eventually convicted of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. But because Officer Krawetz appealed - claiming he acted in self-defense – LEOBOR blocked the town of Lincoln’s ability to remove him from its police force. Officer Krawetz was suspended with pay for months, totaling $23,053 in salary (not including the time he used for sick leave). The town of Lincoln was only able to suspend him without pay seven months later when he was charged with the felony. Even after he was convicted, Lincoln could only move forward with the LEOBOR process after Officer Krawetz exhausted his appeals - three years later. It took the town of Lincoln's lawyers 36 days to prepare for the LEOB)R hearing, costing $35,796 in legal fees and the price to hire a stenographer. On the first day of the hearing, Officer Krawetz opted to resign rather than go through a hearing he knew he would lose. Nevertheless, he had been able to use LEOBOR to postpone accountability for years. If any of us had kicked someone in the head on the job, we would have been fired on the spot.

”There are also efforts to reform LEOBOR. However, proposed reforms would maintain a system of special rights for police officers which no other public employees have. These reforms would not address the fundamental unfairness inherent in LEOBOR.

”Why does Rhode Island even have such a law? As Steve Frias wrote in the Providence Journal in 2015: It began in 1976. At the behest of the Fraternal Order of Police, Senate Majority Leader John Hawkins, a backroom operator with United States Senate ambitions, introduced LEOBOR legislation. It passed the General Assembly unnoticed. Consumed by his own Senate ambitions, Governor Philip Noel signed it because it “seemed innocuous on its face." But soon thereafter Noel admitted that LEOBOR operated in a manner beyond anyone’s “wildest imagination." Within a few weeks, the first Rhode Island LEOBOR case was triggered when the Pawtucket police chief tried to terminate a patrolman charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. A LEOBOR panel suspended the officer for just 15 days without pay. A pattern soon emerged. In 1978, a Providence Journal editorial noted that in “virtually every case” LEOBOR “peer panels have meted out [mere] wrist taps to brother officers,” with “mild suspensions” being the “rule.” 

”Shielding police officers from accountability endangers all of us. When we find a law that endangers Rhode Islanders, and cannot be justified except as an example of the political power of an entitled minority, the solution is not to amend the law (as happened with LEOBOR in 1980 and 1995), but to repeal it.

“It’s time to repeal LEOBOR.”