MONTGOMERY, Ala. – An Alabama committee passed a bill Tuesday establishing procedures for investigating law enforcement misconduct in Montgomery and will set up a means for victims of police brutality to be compensated, a measure first introduced days after a white police officer was charged in the fatal shooting of a black man in the city last year.
Rep. John Knight, a Montgomery Democrat who is sponsoring the legislation, said the public has a right to know what steps are taken to investigate officers after incidents of misconduct are reported.
“The more people are informed about what the procedures and the policies are, the less friction you would have because people would know exactly what’s going to happen when something takes place,” he said.
The legislation does not clarify what those investigation or compensation procedures would be, which gave critics at the House Montgomery County Legislation Committee room to argue that its broad language would leave the city open to multiple compensation lawsuits from people alleging police misconduct.
“The citizens will be paying for claim investigations that might otherwise not be necessary because they might be barred by the statute of limitations,” said City Attorney Kim Fehl, who contended that Montgomery already has existing protocols for investigations of officer misconduct. Proponents responded by saying that if the city already has such policies in place then it shouldn’t be difficult to make them public.