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Committee adopts floor amendment to clarify handling of internal police complaints in House Bill 238
Summary
The Judiciary Committee adopted a floor amendment to House Bill 238 clarifying that Section D of the bill covers internal complaints arising from agency investigations and does not alter the timing for public complaints. The amendment will be offered as a floor amendment and the bill will return to second reader.
During the same Saturday Judiciary Committee session, members considered a floor amendment to House Bill 238 that clarifies how complaints of police misconduct are handled under the bill. The committee adopted the amendment and will offer it on the chamber floor.
The vice chair explained that the amendment returns the law to its prior approach by explicitly including internal complaints in Section D. That language, the vice chair said, covers "charges arising out of an investigation of an alleged police officer misconduct that is not required to be reviewed by the Administrative Charging Committee," which the vice chair characterized as internal complaints. The vice chair said the amendment was not intended to change the timing for public complaints, and noted the existing sentence that "the investigation starts immediately upon receiving the complaint." The vice chair moved the amendment and the committee adopted it.
Delegate Valentine asked whether the bill sponsor was aware of the change; the vice chair and other members said the sponsor, Delegate Young, and stakeholder organizations including the Fraternal Order of Police and local chiefs and sheriffs were aware. After a voice/hand vote, the amendment was adopted and will be offered as a floor amendment; the committee announced it would bring the bill back to second reader. The panel paused its session when bells signaled an adjournment.
The committee did not change the substantive timing for public complaints, according to the vice chair's explanation; the amendment instead makes explicit that internal agency complaints are included in the bill's Section D, and resolves a drafting concern about whether language referencing investigations could be read to create a different one-year filing window for public complaints.
The amendment was adopted without further recorded supplemental materials in the transcript excerpt. The bill will return to second reader with the floor amendment attached.
