By Matt Bittle

DOVER — On Tuesday, exactly one year after George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin sparked worldwide calls for systemic change, Delaware lawmakers announced three bills aimed at police reform.

The measures, which supporters hope will become law by the time the regularly scheduled legislative session wraps up at the end of June, would remove some of the protections that can serve to shield police officers. In short, the proposals would change the police use-of-force standard to make it more objective, expand the Department of Justice’s ability to investigate use-of-force incidents and provide greater transparency in cases of police misconduct by making records public.

Senate Bill 147 would add the word “reasonably” to the section of state law governing police use of force, requiring a law enforcement officer not just to believe he or she is in danger but to reasonably believe force is needed for self-defense or to protect others.

Senate Bill 148 would instruct the Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust to investigate incidents involving officers that cause serious physical injury, as well as ones leading to fatalities. It would also mandate that the agency track the races of officers and suspects involved in such situations.

Senate Bill 149, potentially the most impactful and controversial of the three proposals, would alter the Law-Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights. It would make police misconduct records, currently available only to attorneys in civil suits, publicly accessible. Delaware is the lone state with a specific confidentiality clause in its police bill of rights.

“Too often, an officer who uses excessive force, abuses their authority, tampers with evidence or engages in sexual misconduct is described as a ‘bad apple,’ a term that is meant to separate police officers who engage in wrongdoing from the upstanding officers they serve alongside,” said Senate Majority Whip Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman, a Wilmington Democrat who is the lead sponsor of SB 149. “Yet, the laws here in Delaware actually prevent us from being able to tell the difference.

“Our communities and the police officers sworn to protect them deserve better. Honest police officers deserve a disciplinary system that’s fair, transparent and impartial. Our communities deserve a system that holds ‘bad apples’ accountable. And both deserve lawmakers with the courage to draw a clear distinction between the two. This legislation will do just that by ending the culture of secrecy and ambiguity that has allowed hatred, fear and mistrust between law enforcement and communities of color to flourish for far too long.”

The measure would redact certain information, such as an officer’s home address or medical history, upon release of police records.

Allowing police misconduct records to be accessed outside of civil lawsuits could enable criminal defense attorneys to establish a pattern of misbehavior and abuse of office. The current law has shielded officers like Tom Webster, a former member of the Dover Police Department who was criminally charged but acquitted in 2015 for breaking a Black suspect’s jaw with a kick during an arrest and later hired by the Greensboro (Maryland) Police Department. Mr. Webster, who was involved in the death of a Black man during a 2019 arrest, had 29 use-of-force complaints that were not disclosed to the state of Maryland when he was hired.

Passed in 1985, the police bill of rights was intended to prevent capricious punishment of individual officers by chiefs, but many say it has helped erode public trust and reduce transparency among law enforcement.

A 2017 survey from the Pew Research Center found that 72% of law enforcement members across the country believe their departments do a poor job of holding officers accountable.

“For too long, police misconduct records have been hidden,” Assistant Public Defender Misty Seemans said. “Delaware is in the minority of states where police misconduct — lying, the excessive use of force, abuse of power, tampering with evidence — is secret.

“Communities, criminal defendants, judges and juries should know who is policing their communities and testifying in court. This bill removes the barriers to public access to misconduct records, a misconduct database and civilian oversight, paving the way for a fairer and more transparent criminal justice system.”

Under Senate Bill 149, any state agency, county or municipality that operates a law enforcement agency would have the ability to form a community review board to hear and decide law enforcement disciplinary matters in place of the Delaware Criminal Justice Council or a tribunal made up of fellow police officers.

Delaware is currently one of only three states that allows police officers to use deadly force whenever they believe it to be justified regardless of whether such a belief is reasonable. Under this standard, all 50 instances in which police used deadly force from 2005-19 were found to be justified.

“We need a higher standard for the use of force than to simply allow the officer in question to fall back on the magic words, ‘I believed,’” said Sen. Marie Pinkney, a Bear Democrat. “At the bare minimum, our courts have to be empowered to ask whether a police officer’s belief is justified or just an excuse without rationale.”

The measures filed Tuesday build on proposals from the Delaware Legislative Black Caucus, as well as a task force that has been reviewing police accountability and potential changes over the past year. That panel has been criticized by some advocates for being overly reluctant to recommend major reform.

In addition, the Department of Justice has proposed other changes, such as criminalizing the violation of a person’s civil rights, creating a searchable database of police misconduct and an accompanying “do not hire” list and limiting civil asset forfeiture.

Lawmakers are also moving toward mandating that every police officer in the state wear a body camera (some agencies already require it).

“The public has called out for change, they have called out for transparency and accountability, and we are answering that call with these three bills today,” Attorney General Kathy Jennings said.

Supporters of the bills said they have been in contact with police agencies throughout the state and are hopeful they can back the changes. However, police have largely resisted the kind of large-scale changes they are seeking, such as altering the Law-Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights.

One of the sticking points is whether issues like Mr. Floyd’s killing stem from a few bad cops or from a system in need of an overhaul.

Jeffrey Horvath, executive director of the Delaware Police Chiefs’ Council and a former chief in Dover and Lewes, said in December that the current structure of the bill of rights forces officers to answer questions in a private administrative hearing. If those answers could be released in criminal cases, every officer would simply refuse to talk during private questioning, he said.

“As a chief, I can tell you we’re going to ask you questions, and I’m ordering you to answer these questions, and if you don’t answer them truthfully, I’m going to fire you,” he said.

But to former Wilmington police officer Dan Selekman, the system is the problem.

The “thin blue line” protects officers and silences dissenters, harming public trust, he said in December.

“Do you think there would be a global movement for change because there’s a couple bad cops? No, it’s because the culture, our community, realizes the culture in policing, the culture in law enforcement, is corrupted,” he said. “It’s corroded.

“Not that there’s (only) bad cops. There’s wonderful police out there. There’s great human beings that wear the uniform. What we’re saying is the culture itself is broken.”

Issues with police accountability and trust, particularly among communities of color, go back a long way, but they have intensified in recent years. An August Gallup poll reported that 48% of Americans have confidence in the police, the lowest level in the 27 years the company has tracked that number.

The 2020 killing of Mr. Floyd sparked protests around the world, strengthening the call for changes to the United States’ criminal justice system.

“Criminal justice reform is today’s civil rights movement,” Ms. Seemans said.