Require Police To Intervene When Officers Break The Law

It is the job of the police to intervene when they see someone breaking the law. A reasonable person might think that would also be a requirement when they see a fellow officer breaking the law.

But in Texas (and probably a lot of other states), that is simply not true. The Texas Attorney General has ruled that the law does not require police to intervene when it's an officer breaking the law.

That must change! The law must apply to ALL people, including the police -- or it cannot be respected.

The editorial board of the San Antonio Express-News is calling for the Texas legislature to clarify Texas law -- making it the duty of all police to intervene when an officer is breaking the law. Here is part of their editorial:

Don’t police officers have a duty to uphold the law and protect lives, even when it means taking action against one of their own?

Texas lawmakers must make the answer clear when they convene next month.

The place to start is with the George Floyd Act, legislation that proposes a ban on chokeholds like the one that killed Floyd, a change in qualified immunity doctrines that shield even bad officers from lawsuits over their conduct, and a requirement that police intervene when a fellow officer is using excessive force. 

Introduced by the Legislative Black Caucus, the bill is expected to be the focal point for debate on statewide police reforms in the wake of Floyd’s death and the weeks of national protests over police brutality.

The issue of how to hold police accountable for failing to act against a fellow officer became more crucial when state Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion this month that Texas law does not include “an absolute duty for an officer to intervene” to stop another officer from violating the rights of a citizen.

The opinion was requested by Rep. James White, the only Republican member of the Black Caucus, who told Houston Chronicle reporter Taylor Goldenstein that the response underscores the need for legal clarity. He was surprised the duty wasn’t already clear. . . .

The city of Dallas and other departments implemented similar rules after Floyd’s death, but Texas legislators have the chance not only to make the policy statewide but to give it the force of law and mandate training to back it up and hold departments accountable.

Individual department policies alone are not enough. Minneapolis police added a duty-to-intervene policy in 2016 but that didn’t save Floyd’s life four years later. . . .

Lawmakers also should make sure these changes are fully supported by resources for training, which should be included in the long-overdue changes to the outdated and inadequate oversight of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.

As with many of the proposed police reforms, a duty to intervene will require changing the culture. A statute would empower officers who want to do the right thing but may fear being accused of “ratting out” a colleague or breaking the chain of command. . . .

Enshrining the duty to intervene into Texas law is a no-brainer for anyone who truly wants to get the bad cops off the streets and help the good ones do their jobs.