COLUMBIA, S.C. — Following at least two cases of Midlands law enforcement officers being fired for misconduct, we're checking in on the state's new committee discussing police reform.
The House Equitable Justice System and Law Enforcement Reform Committee, created mid June, is examining four issues:
- Law Enforcement Officer Training, Tactics, Standards and Accountability
- Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform
- Criminal Process and Procedure Reform
- Sentencing Reform
After a Columbia police officer was filmed using a racial slur in Five Points over the weekend, State Representative and House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford tweeted, "[This is] Exactly why the new Law Enforcement Committee...is more important than ever."
News 19 spoke with Rutherford Thursday to learn more about conversations being held in the committee right now.
"What we're interested in is getting [law enforcement] to think outside of the box," said Rutherford, a co-chair of the committee. "They have got to stop believing that what they've been doing in the past is right because it's not."
Rutherford says testimonies continue to come in from stakeholders and citizens alike.
"This is not just about stopping police shootings. This is about making sure that everyone in South Carolina is treated equally. We can only do that by getting testimony from everybody involved and making sure we're taking the right steps," said Rutherford. "A number of citizens came up to testify about moving the 85% to 65% in terms of how long people that were convicted of crimes have to stay in jail."
On the topic of Civil Asset Forfeiture, Rutherford says the state must act.
"The fact that they are still stealing people's money and calling it Civil Asset Forfeiture is wrong. The fact that somebody can get pulled over and have their money taken, simply because the law enforcement officer says that they're going to take it, is wrong. Making that person fight to get it back, it is unconscionable," said Rutherford. "When the Washington Post did a story that police officers are taking more money from people under Civil Asset Forfeiture than has been stolen from people in burglaries, South Carolina has got to act and we need to do it now."
Also testifying are members of law enforcement, like Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott who spoke Thursday on the topic of training.
"We need to have more training in our state. We need to have standards. We always use the words 'minimal standards'. I think we need to have standards of excellence," said Lott in a FaceTime interview with News 19. "A better trained officer, a better educated officer, is going to be more professional."
Lawmakers say they're looking to boost the amount of hours officers are trained, potentially offering more schools for training as well.
"We are one of only about four states that only has one centralized Academy," said Rutherford. "Other states like Florida use the technical schools to educate law-enforcement officers and when we heard that law enforcement in South Carolina receives less technical training then a nail tech, that was embarrassing and it shows how far we have to go."
Sheriff Lott pointed out the funding situation with their training academy. He says what would be better is a recurring fund from the state, rather than leaving the amount in the hands of law enforcement.
"Unfortunately, it's funded by fines and tickets and that's almost a slap in the face to what our job should be," said Lott. "We shouldn't set a quota saying, 'Ok, we have to write four tickets so we can get better training.' It should be a fund they have that's recurring every year and not based on arrests and tickets."
Aside from training and funding discussions, Lott says another matter law enforcement can work on is transparency with the public.
"I think when our citizens have to wait for answers, that causes problems. When there's a critical incident or something happens, we need to give our citizens answers very quickly. If we don't, that's how rumors start and that's how you have issues in the community," he said. "That's one thing we pride ourselves on is we don't wait. When something happens, we put it out to the community, we put it out to the media immediately."
With two and a half months of testimonies so far, it's a collaboration between lawmakers, citizens and law enforcement associations and agencies throughout the state who are working to help define what police reform is while putting a plan into action to create permanent policy changes.
"With the bad things that we've had happen, we're hearing people's voices now. We need to listen to those voices," said Lott. "I think that's so important. This is not something that we just talk about for the next couple of months and nothing happens, we need to have substantial changes and we need to make that happen."
News 19 reached out to multiple law enforcement agencies asking their thoughts about the new committee.
"The South Carolina Law Enforcement Officers Association, the South Carolina Police Chiefs Association, the South Carolina Sheriffs Association and the South Carolina Fraternal Order of Police have developed law enforcements Steps Forward which lays out our reform goals to further enhance the law enforcement profession in South Carolina. We believe these reforms will provide additional training, accountability, professionalism and transparency within policing. We are working closely with both the Senate and House as well as the House Equitable Justice System and Law Enforcement Reform Committee. We look forward to continuing the reform dialogue to ensure that police officers in South Carolina are held to the highest professional standards."
Ryan Alphin, Executive Director
South Carolina Law Enforcement Officers' Association
South Carolina Police Chiefs' Association
“We align ourselves with any reform that works to move the law enforcement profession in a positive direction forward. Such valuable conversations are consistent with the Columbia Police Department’s core values that include professionalism, integrity, fairness, and collaboration."
Skip Holbrook, Chief of the Columbia Police Department
"We appreciate the committee and their desire to work collaboratively with law enforcement to bring meaningful reforms. We look forward to working with them in this joint effort to increase trust in our profession and public safety for the citizens of South Carolina."
Mark Keel, Chief of SLED