CONCORD — Both the governor and state Senate took steps Tuesday toward holding police more accountable in New Hampshire.
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed an executive order creating a commission on law enforcement accountability, community and transparency in response to what he called the “tragic murder” May 25 of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Meanwhile, the state Senate passed a bill that combined several measures on the same topic. Among other things, it would prohibit chokeholds by police in most circumstances, require police to report misconduct by fellow officers and increase pre-employment mental health screenings for officers.
Sen. Melanie Levesque, D-Brookline, said the deaths of Floyd and other black men and women at the hands of police have highlighted deep-rooted problems that must be addressed. Levesque, the Senate’s only black member, briefly broke down in tears recalling Floyd’s death.
“Though we have come a long way, there are many, many miles to go,” she said. “As a state, we have marched, spoken up and demanded change. As a Legislature, we are taking a hard look at ways to improve our criminal justice system to put a stop to generations of systemic racism.”
Sen. David Starr, R-Franconia, cast the only no vote. The bill now goes to the House for a June 30 vote.
The 13-member panel created by the governor will be led by the Attorney General’s Office and include representation from police, a circuit court judge, the NAACP, members of human rights, diversity and mental health groups, and the public.
The commission will look at police training and policies, procedures related to the reporting, investigation and punishment of police misconduct, and the state of relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
The commission will produce a report within 45 days with its recommendations.
While Sununu unveiled the commission as a step toward reform, he remained equivocal on one area of police transparency: officer misconduct records. The state is still fighting a lawsuit to keep the Laurie List — the list of 275 officers who have a sustained finding of misconduct that could impugn their credibility in court — redacted.
That list, which dates back decades and includes alleged officer offenses ranging from falsifying reports to excessive force, has never been fully released. A version distributed to the public lists the offenses, the police department, and the date they were added to the list, but redacts the officer’s names.
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire and several newspapers — including the Concord Monitor — are suing the state’s Department of Justice to release the list under the state’s right-to-know law.
The state has not dropped its defense of that case, which is awaiting oral arguments this year in the state Supreme Court. But on Tuesday, Sununu gave qualified support for potentially releasing the list.
“As long as those officers have received due process, their names should be made public,” Sununu said at a news conference. “Absolutely.”
It is unclear what a due process requirement would entail. Advocates have argued that the list already includes due process protections. In 2018, the criteria was changed to require that officers’ misconduct allegations be “sustained” by their departments before they could end up on the list.
But Sununu maintained that it was a key prerequisite to releasing the full list.
“If an officer hasn’t received due process, then of course we have to be very cognizant of that,” Sununu added. “And even if your name is out there, there’s always an appeal process on top of it for that officer.”
He said that the attorney general had been in “back and forth” with the state’s patrolman’s associations and other police unions over how to release the list.
“They know that this is a pivotal point in time, and they want to take those steps forward,” he said. “And so I’m very hopeful that we’ll find a constructive way to get there. But absolutely. If you’re an officer that’s received your due process, and you’re on that list, it should be public. There’s a public interest in that.”
A bill to force the Department of Justice to make the list public passed the House on voice vote in 2019, but was unanimously sent to “interim study” by the Senate in January.
It was not included in the package of reforms that passed the body Tuesday.