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PA senator proposes state oversight of officer-involved shootings

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Montgomery County senator raises questions of fairness in investigating cases in which an officer uses force with a firearm. Local dis...

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- A Montgomery County senator raises questions of fairness in investigating cases in which an officer uses force with a firearm.

Local district attorney's typically oversee those investigations, but some say the DAs office is too closely tied to police agencies when it comes to cases involving law enforcement.

Several state senators expressed during their testimony at Monday's hearing, that they respect the work of the police.

Sen. Art Haywood (D-MONTGOMERY COUNTY), the bill's sponsor, believes separating prosecutors and investigators from those being investigated would be more fair and impartial.

A hearing on Pennsylvania Senate Bill 400 raises the issue of how much trust people have in the justice system to investigate officer-involved shootings.

Pennsylvania State Police director of the Bureau of Integrity and Professional Standards Wendell Morris's testified "I'm confident in the ability of our internal affairs division, and our investigators and current processes that set up to make sure that there are fair and impartial investigations."

"We've had experiences of deep distrust of police, it's resulted in unrest, shootings, all kinds of unrest," Sen. Haywood said.

Sen. Haywood proposed Senate Bill 400 as a way to prevent any real or perceived conflicts or conflicts of interest between police and the justice system.

"When it comes time to investigate a police involved shooting, let's have more independence in the process, have the attorney general's office do all the investigations statewide," Haywood said.

ACLU of Pennsylvania legislative director Elizabeth Randol said "this would be a clear cut way to ensure that there is a level of separation between the local district attorneys and the police officers they're investigating."

Others expressed concerns about the unintended consequences of undermining trust in the police and the ability to seek justice.

Dauphin County District Attorney and
Ed Marsico said "you'd be taking away this decision, as to whether or not to prosecute an officer and giving it to someone who's unelected, who's not responsible to the community, whereas the DA is an elected official."

"But it's not a uniform policy across the board, so those decisions could be made differently depending on the departments," Randol said.

"We have the background, the experience, and hopefully the integrity to look at these cases, apply the facts to the law, and make a proper determination," Marsico said.

"Can you both work with them closely to prosecute criminals and then prosecute the police officers? It's a question that we can remove by having the attorney general's office conduct the investigations," Sen. Haywood said.

Haywood believes changing the protocol would remove any doubt.

"When we increase the public trust, in the criminal justice systemic total , and what we need is more trust. It's critical that the citizens believe in the criminal justice system," Haywood said.

"District attorneys and police officers, they work with on a daily basis. There's no shame in that, that's how it works, but I think most importantly for us, it's around making sure that the public perceives and understands this process to be fair," Randol said.

Haywood doesn't expect there to be much of a cost associated with having the Attorney General's office handle those types of investigations, as he says the AG's office has a large staff and these incidents don't happen often.

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