By Journalist Amaya Brooks (OBU)
Legislation is being heard, debated, and passed in the Senate and Senator Bell (OU) today presented a bill that prompted lots of great discussion in the honorable Senate. According to Senator Bell, “It has to do with preventing police officers from using the law to their advantage by lying or spreading misinformation about it.”
Her intent in the bill is to create more accountability for police officers and law enforcement agencies. “I want it to be just about preventing police officers from using the law to lie and essentially just manipulate citizens out of their rights.”
The bill became incredibly popular and talked about in the Senate. Senator Hudson (NSU) said, “I think that the notion of codifying the inability of police to lie to citizens is an important issue and I think it’s a great idea. It’s a step in the right direction as far as concerns about the overreach of police.”
In writing this bill, Senator Bell sought to improve law enforcement relations by doing three things. “This is going to 1) incentivize police officers to learn the law better, 2) it’s going to give them a better working knowledge of the law that they are going to be using in their day to day duties, and 3) it will protect citizen’s rights.”
There were objections brought up by several Senators, such as Senator Sconyers (OSU), who said, “For the most part I’m leaning against it because basically this bill is punishing police officers if they’re not informing whoever they are talking to about every single law. This places a lot of scrutiny on police officers.” Senator Bell, when asked what she would say to those objecting to this bill, said, “I think objections to this bill are gonna be maybe that it can be misinterpreted, or this doesn’t happen that often, which it does. You’d be surprised, but it probably just doesn’t get reported.”
Senate Bill No. OU 001 passed in the esteemed Senate, with 15 votes in the affirmative, 5 votes in the negative, and 4 abstentions. Senator Bell’s bill passed with flying colors and will now be sent to the House.