Policing

Activists want LEOBoR abolished and Justice in Policing Act passed as Sgt Hanley begins his appeal

“We believe that LEOBoR is no longer okay with Rhode Islanders. We want it abolished and we want police officers to be able to be disciplined by their chiefs of police.”

Rhode Island News: Activists want LEOBoR abolished and Justice in Policing Act passed as Sgt Hanley begins his appeal

April 23, 2021, 4:01 pm

By Steve Ahlquist

“We are here because Sergeant Hanley is beginning his Superior Court trial for assaulting Mr Rishod Gore, April 19th 2020,” said police accountability Susannah Holloway outside the Garrahy Judicial Complex in Providence Friday morning. “Today [Hanley] is starting this pretrial conference in Superior Court, on appeal, where he will have a full jury trial.”

Sergeant Joseph Hanley was convicted on one count of misdemeanor assault in municipal court, but that conviction automatically means that the case must no go to Superior Court for a jury trial on appeal. Though the court website said that Hanley’s pretrial conferencing was to begin on Friday, those conversations have been pushed off until June.

“We are concerned because Sergeant Hanley still remains on the Providence police force,” continued Holloway outside the courthouse, holding a Black Lives Matter sign. “He has not been disciplined and he has not been fired. It is my understanding that he’s not being paid, but it’s my understanding that he is probably accruing time in the Providence police retirement system and as a concerned Rhode Island tax payer that is not okay with me.

“So we are here to say that the lives and dignity of all Rhode Islanders, Black and white, matter to us, and it matters to us that our police officers are protected by 17 statutes called LEOBoR,” said Holloway. “And they cannot be disciplined and they cannot be fired even when they have been found guilty of a criminal offense until they go through the LEOBoR hearing. The LEOBoR hearing is in front of three fellow police officers. We believe that LEOBoR is no longer okay with Rhode Islanders. We want it abolished and we want police officers to be able to be disciplined by their chiefs of police.”

Adopted in Rhode Island in 1976, the LEOBOR protects officers accused of misconduct, preventing them from being immediately fired or put on leave without pay, and allowing their continued employment to be decided by a panel of other police officers.

Holloway highlighted three pieces of legislation currently under consideration at the Rhode Island General Assembly that would abolish LEOBoR and/or prevent police officers from the kind of assault Rishod Gore suffered while handcuffed and at the mercy of Sergeant Joseph Hanley. The first, S0773, would repeal the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights in its entirety.

“We do not want S0774 to be held for further study,” said Holloway, referring to a legislative procedure often used to sideline bills. “We want [the bill] to be voted on by the Senate Judiciary Committee and we want it to pass and go to the full Senate and we want it then to go to the House to be voted on and enacted.

“We are tired of LEOBoR,” continued Holloway. “If the State of Maryland, which has a terrible history of racism, can abolish LEOBoR, so can Rhode Island, which is actually a beacon of liberty and freedom.

The group also supports enacting H5993 and S0597, the Rishod K Gore Justice in Policing Act, “that would ban chokeholds, and it would ban officers kicking people in the head, and it would ban officers from using their police vehicles as weapons,” said Holloway. “These are sensible measures and we need them now.”

“We also believe that abolishing LEOBoR is the key to increasing trust,” said Rabbi Howard Voss-Altman, who along with Katherine Quinn and Tracy Miller also attended the small protest. “Right now there’s been a breach. There’s been a breach not only because of Sergeant Hanley’s case, there’s been a breach of trust in the day-to-day experiences of people of color in our community. And quite frankly, [abolishing LEOBoR] would go a great way towards a greater sense of transparency and public accountability in the actions of police officers. And with that, we hope that with the abolishing of LEOBoR that there will be a sense of greater trust and maybe even building of relationships that will be meaningful and productive going into the future.”