New Hampshire HB 1682 was introduced by Rep. David Welch (R – Rockingham13) on 1/5/2022, followed by a public hearing on 1/14/2022. The House Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety voted that the bill “ought to pass with amendment” and has been referred to the House Finance Committee for further review.
On the Surface It Sounds Great: Hold Police Accountable for Their Actions
The idea of this bill is to establish a committee that’s considered “independent” and separate from local police jurisdictions in order to ensure police officers are held accountable for their actions (or inactions.) According to Rep. David Welch, the aim of the bill is “to establish a single, neutral, and independent statewide entity to receive complaints alleging misconduct regarding all sworn and elected law enforcement officers.” – HB 1682 public hearing, 1/14/2022 – watch here
As outlined in the bill, officers could potentially face the new Conduct Review Committee for a number of reasons, including: if they’ve been convicted of committing a felony, any sentence of incarceration, excessive use of force, driving while intoxicated, moral turpitude (dishonesty, deceit, theft), acts of omission, lying in a police report or criminal proceeding, falsification of records, tampering with or falsifying evidence, racist conduct or statements, etc.
This all sounds great, because of course law enforcement officers should be held accountable for their actions! Which makes me wonder, why aren’t they now?
Policing the Police With Police
There’s already an established Police Standards and Training Council that handles internal reviews in New Hampshire. The new Law Enforcement Conduct Review Committee would fall under that umbrella, dealing exclusively with misconduct reviews. In recent years the public’s interest in holding police accountable has skyrocketed. Perhaps there are so many cases of police misconduct in the state that they can no longer handle the workload or process them quickly enough.
Since the new Conduct Review Committee would fall under the already established Standards Council, the governor would (again) be appointing its members. The current Police Standards and Training Council consists of mainly a bunch of police officers appointed by Governor Sununu. Since it is the governor who will be appointing members here again, I’m not sure this bill will be as effective as it looks. A politician hand-picking members within the context of “maintaining absolute objectivity” is a farce.
The Law Enforcement Conduct Review Committee would consist of:
- Four law enforcement officers appointed by the governor
- Three public members with no familial associations to a police officer, lawyer, or judge
It’s A Step in the Right Direction
Clearly the public is sick and tired of law enforcement officer misconduct and abuse. Many states are re-thinking how they pursue justice and hold officers accountable for their actions, and New Hampshire is right there with them.
HB 1682, although flawed, is at least heading in the right direction. We want police accountability, and we want it now! What do you think? Will the establishment of a new committee under the current council, all members of which are governor-appointed, get us on the road to accountability? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Video of the Public Hearing for HB 1682: (2:16:42 – 3:22:22)
Too little too late but still behind it. There needs to be much more of this, and soon. The police are absolutely out of control and the biggest problem in America. Who will they hurt and destroy next. These people are nothing more than sick humans that WANT to ARREST YOU and drag you off to a torture dungeon. I do t care who disagrees. It simply means you are ignorant of reality and not worth even one of the hairs on the people they swore an oath to protect. It’s a farce and the scam is up. We are… Read more »
Start be overturning Terry vs Ohio… that’s the trick that will help the most.
Yea, this has been demonstrated in other stakes to be utterly ineffective. We need a different way of coming up with people to sit on a review board and investigate complaints against police officers that is more impartial and of which those people are not tied to politics/policing/governing. I can’t give you a perfect solution that can’t be gamed, but one solution I’m confident would work better is one that was a selection of people from the population that was truly random. In other words NOT the way jury selection is done. That is NOT a random approach.
The problem with policing in the present form is it’s based in a contradiction and it’s systemically coercive. Things that are systemically coercive, can’t be changed by improving morale, replacing individual people, public relations campaigns etc. The problem with a coercive system, is it’s criminal and wrong. If coercion ISN’T WRONG, there’s no need for protective services in the first place. You can’t take part in extorting people for your pay and then also claim to be part of a thing that “protects people” from somebody who might extort or harm them or their property. That’s literally impossible, but that… Read more »
Are you aware a lot of cities and states have tried this same ploy. But, they all failed to pass. Freekeeners are so misguided and ignorant. Every time one of these types of committees pop up freekeene thinks they will be able to break the law and be granted some sort of immunity to the consequences of their actions. I’m quite sure the freekeeners would be abusing this with fabricated lies and other BS just to target a police officer. I don’t buy into this because it is ridiculous and full of holes.
Jumping Jacks, if the law said you had to return a runaway slave to his master or get in trouble if found out you didn’t turn in the slave…what would you do ?
Just curious, thanks in advance for your answer.
“Are you aware a lot of cities and states have tried this same ploy. But, they all failed to pass.”
Oh really, JJ? A quick google search reveals that MN already has one :/
“abusing this with fabricated lies and other BS” … “ridiculous and full of holes.”
Hehe sounds like you’re describing yourself there Jumping Jacks.
Personally I dismiss it as an unfortunate brain thing you’re suffering from.. but if you are on some elaborate disinfo campaign I do hope your handlers are paying you well.
Either way, FK can chalk that up as another victory for freedom 😉
I think we know what JJ would do, eh Bob C? A sloppy disinfo campaign directed against would-be runaway slaves and underground railroad participants.
The main reason this “review board” won’t work, is. it doesn’t and CAN’T represent actual consumer feedback. Consumer feedback is the aggregate feedback of the consumers of a given service or product. A board of State appointed people is not the consumer aggregate and can’t magically represent the aggregate simply because government says it can. For the purposes of this semi-educational rant, let’s graciously allow the present policing model to be called a “service”. (Even though it really isn’t, since it violates peaceful individual’s consent. In that regard, it has more in common with rape, which is just one of… Read more »
Bob C – This isn’t the 1800’s
If it’s *for holding cops to account, I’m for it
Intrigare A quick google search reveals that MN already has one. Ye, so? I said many have tried unsuccessfully one city doesn’t seem like much success.
The rest of your inappropriate rants fall on deaf ears.
World renowned Keene cop (McLaughlin) and Matt Griffin on the list twice, finally exposed to be on the Laurie list. … Winchester NH too.. Though they’re Dept is very small: 5 man.. Two articles Keene: https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2022-02-01/nh-laurie-list-officers-remain-in-law-enforcemnt and here, regarding Winchester. https://www.sentinelsource.com/news/local/winchester-selectboard-deadlocks-on-vote-to-fire-police-lieutenant/article_94d5a2d0-ef6f-5da7-ac12-0b7e9dc77cbe.html
“The rest of your inappropriate rants fall on deaf ears.”
Mmm yes Jumping Jacks… Yes indeed
Weird question: Is Witt or what ever that guys name is still around?
Jumping Jacks. you’re right it’s not the 1800s. While true, that’s a non sequitur to my claim, that policing / security models or any business model for that matter which rely on coercion as part of their business model and don’t care if the so-called customers are captives is not a proper business model. I maintain if you have to legally extort your customers, you’re doing it wrong and what follows is not and cannot be, an actual service. “That’s the way we’ve always done it” is a distraction feature to rationalize the use of force by some people as… Read more »
Bob C – It’s all ridiculous. I could see something like this in larger areas like New York or LA but small towns with very limited arrests. It would be easy for any freekeener to get busted and then start with the whole rant and rave about how the police did this and that. How could you hold police accountable when no one on the board was or is a police officer. Would the finger pointing be admissible in a trial? Would the lawyers for a defendant continue to file for continuance until a hearing takes place about the officer(s)… Read more »
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the freekeeners are going to have a field day with this and abuse the system. Every ticket they get, or encounter with the police they will try and frame the officers.”
The police could leave ‘freekeeners’ alone and go after… idk… real criminals instead? Just a thought.
I’m a rocket scientist.
And I don’t think: “freekeeners are going to have a field day with this and abuse the system.”
It’s no surprise jumping jacks would be against this (though for once I think most of us agree with him that it is a futile effort that does little more than make an effort to pull the wool over our eyes). Jumping Jacks is an obedient little piece of shit who would be the slave and like it! I can just imagine him going “Give me more master! Give me more!” .. each time the whip comes down on his skim for no other reason than his color (had he been a slave).
I wished I gained stream.
They should have more stream engines.
Stanley strangers went fast, I think.
I think they went away because of same kind of things that electric cars went away.
They had electric cars fifty years ago.. Or even further back.
But the powers that be didn’t like it, just like with the steam engine and just like with marijuana.
I guess the swiper prefers those words over.. Steem and steemer
*steam. I want a steam car
I appreciate Bob’s pov. But I can only read short views. He may not know it but, I went to his MJ trial years ago. Where they put the HAMER DOWN for pot. Btw… Maybe when we’re…. you know living on Mars and Venus and etc maybe after that, the New Hampshire clown posse in Concord will do us a big big big big favor and allow us to smoke pot without being physically assaulted by coppers. Because that they haven’t it’s like this big red sign being held up in New Hampshire for the world to see: “New Hampshire… Read more »
Intrigare – If you are a citizen of a city, act like one. You don’t get a pass just because you are a freekeener.to consistently break laws just because.
If you don’t like a law, then try to get it changed. Breaking the law never has worked for the freekeeners. As I said before, freekeeners and the history of frekeeners shows they would be the first to abuse this process. I believe almost 100% freekeeners will lose and then the board will be overwhelmed with constant freekeene BS
Idk JJ, FK seems pretty active in trying to get laws changed. Take this article for example. And deny it all you want, they’ve had success. Their effectiveness is the main reason they’ve drawn so much ire from people like you.
And disobeying bad laws was right in the 1800s with runaway slaves, it was right in 1940’s and 50’s and it’s right today. If you think modern times are immune from having bad laws then idk what to tell you. Seems a bit arrogant. And ignorant. Open your eyes dude.
Intrigare – So, how many laws has freekeene changed? I don’t recall even one. Comparing what slaves went through is piss poor for todays scenarios. freekeeners would abuse this like they abuse the court system.
If you disagree with a law, work to get it changed instead of breaking it and getting fined or thrown in jail. When freekeeners do that, they are proving the law is just. and needed. You people have always done everything ass backward.
Now your idol Ian is facing years in prison because he thought he could out smart the feds. His loss.
JJ off the top of my head, permit-free consealed weapons and marijuana decriminalization are two.
Of course you won’t admit that because your job here is to be the resident deceptive troll we all know and love, dispensing falsehoods almost as fast as we can answer them.
Anyway be sure to get that brain thing of yours checked out will ya? It’s concerning to say the least.
Oh, and don’t forget about that OTC Narcan law, Intrigare – although that was technically more the Free State Project than Free Keene.
Anyway, I’ll bet Jacks had an EPIC tantrum about that law after it was passed. Ya know, if he was running things he’d have all the opiate addicts in NH burned at the stake. He’s that much of an asshole. 😉
Yeah I remember that… That was when JJ tried to prove he was right by saying he ran drug rehab centers. Haha we all got a good laugh out of that, didn’t we? Good times. And he still can’t admit the lie. Lol
Why is it pulling teeth to put a camera on a police officer?
Why is it pulling teeth to get a look at the laurie list?
Why do you have to fight tooth and nail for that?
Why do they fight you and inflict physical harm on you and resist you to the fullest extent, to get those things?
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!