MONTGOMERY — The Senate Judiciary Committee held a public hearing on Wednesday on legislation expanding civil and criminal immunity for law enforcement officers in Alabama.
House Bill 202 (HB202) by State Rep. Rex Reynolds (R-Huntsville) would repeal the current laws on police immunity and establish that a law enforcement officer shall be immune from any claim that seeks to impose civil liability on the officer for conduct performed within the officer's discretionary authority.
The bill creates heightened requirements for a plaintiff to prove that an officer acted outside their authority and new legal proceedings and hearings for the plaintiff to bring a complaint. It also creates additional immunity hearings for officers who are accused of misconduct. The bill's provisions cover both civil and criminal immunity for police.
The bill passed the House by a 75-26 margin on March 6. It wasn’t voted on in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
State Sen. Rodger Smitherman (D-Birmingham) said during the committee meeting, “It’s a green light for black folks to get killed, and the person has the opportunity to not be held accountable. There are very, very good officers. Very good ones. There are officers who are afraid of black folks. Just putting it out there for what it is. There are officers that advise against black people.”
“This bill is going to cause a lot of black folks to get killed, and it’s going to be done under the name of immunity,” he added. “It hurts me to think that this bill could allow black people to be slaughtered like animals, be slaughtered at will.”
Reynolds told the committee the bill protects law enforcement.
“I’m going to respect your thoughts about what you say related to African-Americans being damaged by this, but I wore this suit this morning because the last three police officers I buried in Huntsville PD, I wore this suit right here. So, I take what you said and I flip the coin. I worry about that split-second decision they’ve got to go through, and what if they hesitate? What if they’re killed?” Reynolds said.
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