Legislation Document

AMEND House Bill No. 206 at line 57 by inserting “ Representatives. ” after “ the ”.

FURTHER AMEND House Bill No. 206 by striking lines 65 through 73 and inserting in lieu thereof the following:

“ (c) Except for the chairperson, members appointed by the Governor may not be a current or former member of law-enforcement or affiliated with law-enforcement. The Governor shall consider non-binding recommendations from the NAACP, Delaware Center for Justice, and other non-profit organizations for the public members appointed under paragraph (b)(15) of this section. ”.

(d) Members appointed by the Governor, except for the chairperson, shall serve for a 3-year term and may be reappointed for 1 additional term. Each term of office shall expire on the date specified in the appointment; however, the board member shall remain eligible to participate in board proceedings unless and until replaced by the Governor. Initial appointments may be for terms of less than 3 years in order to stagger the terms of the appointed members. The Governor shall consider geographic diversity in appointing public members to the Commission.

(e) Members appointed to the Commission, except for the chairperson, who have never served on the Commission may be appointed to the Commission for 2 consecutive terms, but no such person shall thereafter be eligible for 2 consecutive appointments. No public member who has been twice appointed to the Commission or who has served on the Commission for 6 years within any 9-year period shall again be appointed to the Commission until an interim period of at least 3 years has expired since such person last served. ”.

FURTHER AMEND House Bill No. 206 on line 110 by striking “ e. ” and inserting in lieu thereof “ f. ”.

FURTHER AMEND House Bill No. 206 by inserting the following after line 449:

“Section 18. Amend Chapter 92, Title 11 of the Delaware Code by making deletions as shown by strike through and insertions as shown by underline as follows:

§ 9200. Limitations on political activity; “law-enforcement officer” defined; rights of officers under investigation.

(c) Whenever a law-enforcement officer is under investigation or is subjected to questioning for any reason which could lead to disciplinary action, demotion or dismissal, the investigation or questioning shall be conducted under the following conditions:

(3) The law-enforcement officer under investigation shall be informed of the name, rank and command of the officer in charge of the investigation. All questions directed to the officer shall be asked by and through no more than 2 investigators. No formal complaint against a law-enforcement officer seeking dismissal or suspension or other formal disciplinary action shall be prosecuted under departmental rule or regulation unless the complaint is supported by substantial evidence derived from an investigation by an authorized member of the department or another officer who is certified by the Council on Police Training pursuant to Chapter 84 of this title and has experience and/or training on conducting an internal law-enforcement investigation and is appointed by the Chief of Police of the law-enforcement department to conduct the investigation of the officer in question.”.

SYNOPSIS

This amendment makes technical corrections and provides that no member of the Commission appointed by the Governor, except for the chairperson, may be a current or former member of law-enforcement or affiliated with law-enforcement. It also requires that the public members appointed by the Governor be made based upon non-binding recommendations from the NAACP, Delaware Center for Justice, and any other interested non-profit organization that wishes to submit names.

This amendment is identical to House Amendment No. 2 except that it clarifies that the chairperson serves at the pleasure of the Governor and is required to have substantial experience in the field of law enforcement. This is the current requirement for the chairperson, but it was in tension with other amendment language.