House public-safety committee gives due-pass recommendations to six Senate bills, including ICE notification and $20M reentry grant

The Arizona House Committee on Public Safety and Law Enforcement on March 14 advanced six Senate bills, approving due-pass or pass recommendations on measures ranging from expanded constable training and fee changes to a contentious ICE-notification requirement for certain arrestees.

The committee returned Senate Bill 12-31, which would allow elected or appointed constables to request training from the Constable Ethics, Standards and Training Board (CSTB), with a due-pass recommendation after supporters said the change fills gaps for newly appointed constables who may take office between annual classroom trainings. "We have several constables statewide that are willing and would make great trainers to those constables who need hands on training," said Scott Blake, president of the Arizona Constables Association. The committee recorded 13 ayes, 0 nays and 2 absent.

Senate Bill 14-61, amended in committee, was returned with a due-pass recommendation, 9 ayes, 5 nays, 1 absent. The bill, and the Marshall amendment adopted in committee, would limit an employer's ability to fire a promoted law-enforcement officer who fails to complete a probationary period while leaving employers able to demote such officers; it also addresses representation during internal affairs investigations. Joe Clore, executive director of the Arizona Police Association, testified the bill aims to preserve demotion as a remedy rather than termination in some promotion cases.

Senate Bill 11-63, an emergency measure addressing U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs police authority to provide certain custody, transport and related actions off federal property for veterans in crisis, received a due-pass recommendation, 13 ayes, 1 nay, 1 absent. Lieutenant Charles Salter of the VA Police described the measure as intended to allow VA police to reach veterans in the community and transport them to appropriate care.

Senate Bill 11-61, which increases the cap on certain writ fees from $5 to $10 and changes how constable mileage is calculated, passed the committee with a due-pass recommendation, 10 ayes, 3 nays, 1 absent. Megan Kitner of the Arizona Association of Counties told the committee the writ fee is the primary funding source for constable training and equipment statewide and that the mileage change corrects a long-standing statutory mismatch between where mileage is charged and who actually serves papers.

Senate Bill 13-12, a $20 million appropriation from the consumer restitution subaccount to the Attorney General for two-year grants to county sheriffs for reentry and planning services, was returned with a due-pass recommendation, 9 ayes, 4 nays, 1 present, 1 absent. Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes, president of the Arizona Sheriffs' Association, and others argued the grants are a continuation of a successful pilot that reduced recidivism in participating counties; Rhodes said his county saw recidivism fall from about 50% to 18% after implementing the model.

Senate Bill 16-10, a bill requiring county detention facilities to provide specified information about arrestees charged with enumerated offenses to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and to honor ICE requests (with limited exemptions for counties that already have on-site ICE agents or trained employees), passed out of committee after prolonged debate, 8 ayes, 6 nays, 1 absent. Sponsor remarks invoked the Laken-Riley Act and said the bill aims to ensure cooperation with federal immigration authorities for certain serious offenses. Opponents, including Noah Schramm of the ACLU of Arizona, urged a no vote, saying the measure risks deportation of people without convictions, will chill cooperation between immigrant communities and police, and raises due-process and civil-rights concerns.

Votes at a glance (committee recommendation) - SB 12-31 (Constable training): due pass; committee tally 13 A, 0 N, 2 absent. - SB 14-61 (Law-enforcement probation/demotion; representation in internal affairs; amended): due pass as amended; 9 A, 5 N, 1 absent. - SB 11-63 (VA police authority off-federal-property; emergency measure): due pass; 13 A, 1 N, 1 absent. - SB 11-61 (Writ fee cap increase to $10; mileage calculation change; contains Prop 108 clause): due pass; 10 A, 3 N, 1 absent. - SB 13-12 ($20M reentry grants via AG consumer restitution subaccount): due pass; 9 A, 4 N, 1 present, 1 absent. - SB 16-10 (ICE notification and detainer cooperation for specified arrests): due pass; 8 A, 6 N, 1 absent.

Why it matters: Committee members and outside witnesses framed these bills as a mix of operational fixes for local law enforcement (training, mileage, equipment funding), public-safety experiments with measurable recidivism reductions, and a polarizing immigration-law cooperation measure that splits members on civil-rights and public-safety trade-offs. Several members said they would consider floor amendments on items such as restricting uses of fee revenues or altering funding sources for the reentry grants.

Next steps: Each measure will move to the House floor according to the House calendar and may be amended further. Several committee members reserved their final floor votes pending changes requested in committee.