Sen. Acosta And Rep. Batista File RI Police Reform Bill

PAWTUCKET, RI — Two Rhode Island lawmakers advocating for police reform have unveiled the Rishod K. Gore Justice in Policing Act of 2021.

In a media release, Sen. Jonathon Acosta and Rep. José F. Batista said their bill would require police body cameras, require that officers intervene and report severe misconduct by their peers, place limits on the use of force, and eliminate qualified immunity for officers who engage in willful misconduct.

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Batista, a Democrat who represents South Providence, said the bill “aims to usher in once-in-a-generation reform to our policing practices, while providing to Mr. Gore the opportunity to reclaim the narrative and turn this horrific event into a positive for the community.”

“We need to put the ‘public’ back in ‘public oversight,’” said Acosta, whose district includes Central Falls and Pawtucket. “Our tax dollars and the employees they fund should be transparent. Public dollars for public body cams should produce publicly accessible footage.”

The two said the case of Rishod Gore underlines the need for change.

Earlier this month, Judge Brian Goldman found Providence Police Sgt. Joseph Hanley guilty of assaulting Gore, a Black man who was on the ground in handcuffs. Video of the 2020 incident showed Hanley kicking and punching the man. Hanley and his lawyers argued he was using acceptable force for a subject resisting arrest, but the judge said Hanley’s testimony was not credible. Hanley was sentenced to a year of probation. Charges against Gore were dropped and he received a $50,000 settlement from the city. Hanley’s lawyer said he plans to appeal the conviction to the R.I. Supreme Court.

In addition to requiring police body or cruiser dash cameras, the act allows for public release of such video footage. It requires departments to discipline officers found to have used excessive force.

The bill allows legal action against police who violate civil rights or those who fail to intervene when they witness misconduct by other officers. It places limits upon the use of force, bans chokeholds, and prevents police from kicking a suspect in the head or using a moving car as a weapon. The bill empowers the Rhode Island Attorney General to take civil rights action under certain circumstances, Acosta and Batista announced.

The lawmakers opined that punitive parole and drug laws and harsh policing tactics are among systematic problems that prevent poor people and poor neighborhoods from escaping poverty.

“Arrest and joblessness are cyclical, locking families and whole neighborhoods into generational poverty. We have to stop accepting this as something we can’t fix. We can fix this, but it requires the difficult work of acknowledging how and why our systems produce the results they do and reforming those systems from the bottom up,” said Batista.