[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 899 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 899

To require the Attorney General to prepare an evaluation and report on 
potential problem officer early warning programs and to develop a model 
  potential problem officer early warning program, and to express the 
      sense of Congress that the Attorney General, under existing 
   authorities, should provide assistance to local jurisdictions in 
  establishing procedures to identify and provide guidance to police 
officers who demonstrate the potentiality of having difficulty dealing 
           with members of the public on a consistent basis.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                May 5 (legislative day, April 19), 1993

 Mr. Danforth (for himself, Mr. Cohen and Mr. Bradley) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To require the Attorney General to prepare an evaluation and report on 
potential problem officer early warning programs and to develop a model 
  potential problem officer early warning program, and to express the 
      sense of Congress that the Attorney General, under existing 
   authorities, should provide assistance to local jurisdictions in 
  establishing procedures to identify and provide guidance to police 
officers who demonstrate the potentiality of having difficulty dealing 
           with members of the public on a consistent basis.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. POTENTIAL PROBLEM OFFICER EARLY WARNING PROGRAMS.

    (a) Declarations.--The Congress finds and declares that--
            (1) police brutality is a problem of deep concern; and
            (2) the Congress has an interest in assisting local units 
        in creating early warning systems that are effective, 
        resilient, and affordable to the local units.
    (b) Definition.--In this Act, ``potential problem officer early 
warning program'' means a system of procedures that is designed to--
            (1) identify police officers who have been the subject of 
        an excessive number of legitimate complaints of excessive use 
        of force by members of the public or have otherwise 
        demonstrated the potentiality of having difficulty dealing 
        appropriately with members of the public;
            (2) provide assistance to such officers in avoiding such 
        difficulty in the future, including the provision of training 
        in communication techniques, conflict resolution, and stress 
        management; and
            (3) apply discipline where appropriate.
    (c) Evaluation and Report.--
            (1) Evaluation.--The Attorney General, acting through the 
        Director of the National Institute of Justice, shall--
                    (A) conduct an evaluation of potential problem 
                officer early warning programs that are being or have 
                been utilized by units of local government, including 
                analyses of--
                            (i) the effect on such programs of factors 
                        such as the population and geographic size and 
                        characteristics of a jurisdiction and the 
                        ability of such programs to adjust in a 
                        resilient manner to changes in such factors;
                            (ii) the potential savings that local 
                        governments can realize from the operation of 
                        such programs as a result of the reduction in 
                        the number of citizen complaints, the reduction 
                        in the number of occasions in which it is 
                        necessary to change the duty assignments of or 
                        to dismiss (and replace) problem officers, and 
                        other beneficial effects;
                            (iii) the positive and negative effects 
                        that such programs may have on the law 
                        enforcement system, such as their effect on 
                        police morale and the ability of police 
                        officers to perform their law enforcement 
                        duties;
                            (iv) the ability of such programs to ensure 
                        the exoneration of officers whose conduct is 
                        proper while identifying those whose conduct 
                        indicates the necessity or desirability of 
                        prophylactic action; and
                            (v) the costs of establishing such programs 
                        and of operating and monitoring the 
                        effectiveness of such programs on a permanent 
                        basis;
                    (B) develop a model early warning system that is 
                effective, capable of adjusting to changing 
                circumstances, and affordable to units (or combinations 
                of units) of local government of jurisdictions (or 
                combinations of jurisdictions) with populations of 
                50,000 or more; and
                    (C) prepare and disseminate to the law enforcement 
                community, including Federal, State and local law 
                enforcement agencies, findings and recommendations made 
                as a result of the evaluation for the establishment of 
                such programs.
            (2) Report.--On or before October 1, 1994, the Attorney 
        General shall submit to Congress a report addressing the 
        matters described in paragraph (1), with recommendations 
        concerning the need or appropriateness of further action by the 
        Federal Government.
            (3) Expenses.--Expenses incurred in conducting the 
        evaluation and developing a model potential problem officer 
        early warning system under paragraph (1) shall be paid out of 
        funds that are available to the National Institute of Justice 
        and not specifically appropriated for other purposes, to the 
        extent that such funds can be made available without increasing 
        the amount of appropriations for the National Institute of 
        Justice for any fiscal year over the amount appropriated for 
        fiscal year 1993.
    (d) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) the Attorney General should, under existing authorities 
        and using appropriations available for those authorities and 
        funds otherwise available to the Attorney General, make seed 
        money grants of up to $25,000 each to units (or combinations of 
        units) of local government of jurisdictions (or combinations of 
        jurisdictions) of a population of 50,000 or more for the 
        purpose of assisting the police department (or other entity 
        that performs the functions of a police department) in 
        establishing a potential problem officer early warning program;
            (2) a unit of local government should be eligible to 
        receive a grant described in subsection (c) if--
                    (A) its police department (or other entity that 
                performs the functions of a police department) adopts 
                and enforces--
                            (i) a written policy prohibiting the use of 
                        unreasonable or unnecessary physical force by 
                        law enforcement officers; and
                            (ii) written procedures for receiving and 
                        investigating citizen complaints alleging 
                        misconduct by law enforcement officers;
                    (B) the program to be funded includes provisions 
                for continuing self-monitoring of the program, 
                including the provision to the Attorney General of 
                information that may be useful in performing the 
                evaluation and developing the model program described 
                in subsection (d)(1); and
                    (C) the grant recipient demonstrates a commitment 
                to the long-term continuance of the program and the 
                reduction of the incidence of police brutality;
            (3) a policy described in paragraph (2)(A) should--
                    (A) restrict the use of force to circumstances 
                authorized by law and to the degree minimally necessary 
                to accomplish a lawful law enforcement purpose; and
                    (B) include procedures for reporting and monitoring 
                the use of force by officers within the jurisdiction of 
                the department;
            (4) the procedures described in paragraph (2)(B) should 
        require that complainants--
                    (A) be allowed to receive copies of their 
                complaints;
                    (B) be informed of the findings, disposition, and 
                specific disciplinary actions, if any, resulting from 
                their complaints; and
                    (C) be permitted to attend any disciplinary 
                hearings that result from their complaints;
            (5) a unit (or combination of units) of local government 
        should receive grants described in this subsection in amounts 
        that do not exceed $50,000 in the aggregate; and
            (6) the total amount of grants described in this subsection 
        that are made during fiscal years 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, and 
        1998 should not exceed $5,000,000.

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