A year after a white Montgomery police officer received charges for fatally shooting a Black man, a committee in the Alabama State House of Representatives passed a bill on Tuesday that created procedures for investigating misconduct by law enforcement in Montgomery. The bill also set up a system for victims of such misconduct to be compensated.
Democratic Rep. John Knight of Montgomery sponsored the bill in an attempt to increase transparency.
“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,” Knight told AL.com.
Opponents of the bill believe it would cause more friction, thus leading the city to be faced with compensation lawsuits due to the unclear procedures established in the bill.
Critics also find the bill to be unnecessary, saying the city already has investigation procedures for law enforcement misconduct.
However, the counterargument of those in favor of the bill was “that if the city already has such policies in place then it shouldn’t be difficult to make them public,” according to AL.com report.
