[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 207 (Tuesday, December 8, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H7040-H7042]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          POOR TRAINING AND OVERSIGHT OF TEXAS LAW ENFORCEMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2019, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Green) until 10 p.m.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise, and tonight I 
would like to initiate this event with some words of thanks for the 
many people who work late into the night with us.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank all of them for what they do and for 
staying here for the duration. And there are other persons who are 
without this facility who are also here until we leave, so I thank them 
for what they do.
  I also, tonight, would like to make note of the Houston Chronicle. 
That is the largest newspaper in Houston, Texas. And I would like to 
thank the Houston Chronicle for exercising some of its courage and some 
of its wisdom in terms of what it has produced with some of the news 
stories as of late.
  The Houston Chronicle has printed two stories that I would like to 
focus on tonight. They are about policing in the State of Texas.
  I have two documents that I include in the Record. They both deal 
with policing in Texas. The first one is styled: ``Blistering 
Government Report Blasts Poor Training, Oversight of Texas Law 
Enforcement.'' The second one is an editorial, titled: ``Editorial: 
Hairstylists Get More Training Than Texas Cops? That's Unacceptable.''

             [From Houston Chronicle Local, Nov. 30, 2020]

 Blistering Government Report Blasts Poor Training, Oversight of Texas 
                            Law Enforcement

             (By St. John Barned-Smith and Eric Dexheimer.)

       Last year, more than 600 Texas law enforcement officers 
     received a dishonorable discharge from their agencies for 
     misconduct. Yet more than a quarter of them were rehired to 
     work as sworn officers.
       To qualify for a peace officer license, Texas cops need 
     fewer hours of basic training than licensed cosmetologists 
     and less than half the education required of air-conditioning 
     and refrigeration contractors. While the basic training 
     requires officers to spend 48 hours on the firing range, it 
     demands only two hours of ``civilian interaction'' 
     instruction.
       The difficulty of purging bad officers from the ranks of 
     Texas police and outdated and inadequate officer training 
     highlight how state lawmakers have rendered the Texas 
     Commission on Law Enforcement unable to meaningfully oversee 
     the profession, according to a blistering new report by the 
     Sunset Advisory Commission. The commission reviews the 
     performance of state agencies every 10 years or so.
       The Sunset Advisory Commission's critical findings come 
     amid a contentious nationwide re-evaluation of the 
     fundamental role of police. The deaths of Sandra Bland, Eric 
     Garner, Tamir Rice and George Floyd, among others, have 
     prompted calls for stronger oversight from police departments 
     and civilian review boards, as well as stricter limits on 
     police use of force.
       But in Texas, the regulation of law enforcement is ``by and 
     large, toothless,'' the Sunset report concluded.
       Although it is charged with licensing police and 
     correctional officers and 911 dispatchers, the law 
     enforcement commission differs from state agencies that 
     regulate other professions in that it has almost no authority 
     to act against an officer's license. Instead, most oversight 
     of police conduct is left up to each of the state's 2,700 law 
     enforcement agencies, which set their own policies and 
     standards.
       Without a shared definition of professional conduct, many 
     have widely differing rules. For example, ``In the Dallas-
     Fort Worth metroplex, chokeholds are an acceptable technique 
     west of the 3200 block of Sandy Lane, but are not allowed on 
     the east side of the same street because it crosses two 
     different . . . jurisdictions,'' the Sunset report found.
       Texas' patchwork of uneven oversight has resulted in ``a 
     fragmented, outdated system with poor accountability, lack of 
     statewide standards, and inadequate training,'' the Sunset 
     report stated.
       While advocacy groups and demonstrators have demanded 
     better police oversight, they also have called on cities to 
     reallocate millions of dollars from law enforcement budgets 
     into community services. That, in turn, has sparked swift 
     blowback from conservative politicians and supporters of law 
     enforcement. In Austin, a lawmaker recently filed legislation 
     prohibiting local governments from cutting police budgets.
       Washington-based criminologist Matthew Hickman said the 
     protests and impassioned conversations about police reform 
     have revealed holes in how municipalities, states and the 
     federal government oversee law enforcement officers.
       Accountability starts at the department level, he said, 
     with internal affairs investigation. At the other end, in the 
     most egregious circumstances, the Department of Justice can 
     pursue civil rights investigations against problem 
     departments.
       Charley Wilkison, executive director of the Combined Law 
     Enforcement Associations of Texas, said the Sunset report was 
     just the beginning of the process of state lawmakers' 
     evaluation of the law enforcement commission. Legislators 
     will hold hearings next year and almost certainly change some 
     of the Sunset staff's recommendations.
       ``What you're seeing there is not going to be state law,'' 
     he said. While his organization agreed some changes were 
     needed, he said, it opposed granting the state commission 
     sweeping new enforcement powers to investigate and discipline 
     officers.
       Still, policing watchdogs said the report's findings rang 
     true. ``Right now, it definitely feels like at the state 
     level, there's little to no regulation of law enforcement 
     that's happening,'' said Chris Harris of the nonprofit public 
     interest justice center Texas Appleseed, ``and to the extent 
     there is, it's not effective.''
       And one key Houston-area legislator said he was inclined to 
     make some changes. Reforms to the agency are ``long 
     overdue,'' said state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, who said 
     the Texas law enforcement commission should operate more like 
     other regulatory boards such as the State Bar of Texas or the 
     State Board of Pharmacy.
       The report was notable for its sweepingly critical 
     evaluation of nearly every facet of the agency, calling its 
     regulation of the profession ``fundamentally broken.'' It 
     said the changes it recommended were stopgap and called for 
     legislators to form a blue ribbon committee ``to 
     comprehensively look at how the state regulates law 
     enforcement and recommend needed changes to improve law 
     enforcement regulation in Texas.''
       It took particular note of the state's inability to 
     discipline officers for misconduct. It pointed to a recent 
     incident in which the San Antonio Police Department fired an 
     officer for giving a homeless man a sandwich filled with dog 
     feces. Yet the officer, Matthew Luckhurst, was able to return 
     to the force. He was later fired--for good--after another 
     feces-related incident.
       The example highlighted the Texas Commission on Law 
     Enforcement's limited authority to take any action against an 
     officer's state license. The agency may act only when 
     officers fail to complete mandatory continued education, if 
     they are convicted of or received deferred adjudication for 
     felonies or certain misdemeanors, or if they receive a second 
     dishonorable discharge. The agency has even less authority to 
     sanction individual law enforcement agencies.
       Roger Goldman, retired law professor from the Saint Louis 
     University School of Law, said that about two-thirds of 
     states have stronger oversight abilities at the state level 
     than Texas, and that in many states, officers can have their 
     licenses revoked for misconduct even if they haven't been 
     convicted of a crime.
       Many states across the country are taking other tacks to 
     try to prevent bad officers from getting hired at other 
     departments after allegations of gross misconduct.
       Some states are now requiring departments to screen 
     candidates more rigorously. In Vermont, for example, 
     lawmakers passed a bill requiring departments to provide 
     information about why they fired officers to other 
     departments when those officers try to get new jobs. In 
     Connecticut, lawmakers implemented rules requiring regulators 
     to create a list of officers fired for serious misconduct but 
     whose licenses were not decertified. The list prevented 
     officers from being rehired by other departments, Goldman 
     said.
       Matt Simpson, with the ACLU of Texas, said that while the 
     Sunset review recommended a panel to study needed changes,

[[Page H7041]]

     lawmakers in the meantime should ``ensure public safety is 
     not threatened'' by unqualified cops and pass reforms to give 
     the law enforcement commission more authority to discipline 
     officers dishonorably discharged, as well as empower the 
     agency to sanction law enforcement agencies that ``fail to 
     hold up their end of the bargain in hiring and training 
     qualified law enforcement officers.''
       Simpson also urged the Legislature to pass reforms that set 
     statewide use of force standards and require a focus on de-
     escalation and proportional response; require officers to 
     intervene if they witness other officers using excessive 
     force; and pass citation requirements for low-level offenses.
                                  ____


               [From the Houston Chronicle, Dec. 7, 2020]

   Editorial: Hairstylists Get More Training Than Texas Cops? That's 
                              Unacceptable

                         (The Editorial Board)

       People who call the police for help in a life and death 
     situation have every right to expect the responding officer 
     to be at least as well-trained and professional as the person 
     who cuts their hair or fixes their air conditioner.
       We should have similar assurances that the deputy pulling 
     us over for speeding or the jailer locking the cell door 
     holding a murder suspect are being held accountable to local 
     and state legal standards that preserve life, safety and 
     civil liberties.
       That may not be the case in Texas, according to a harshly 
     critical report from the Sunset Advisory Commission, the 
     oversight body the Legislature created to ensure state 
     government agencies remain effective or be shut down.
       The study showed that the Texas Commission on Law 
     Enforcement, the organization responsible for licensing peace 
     officers and regulating state and local police agencies, 
     hasn't been able to effectively hold police or their 
     departments to sufficient standards. It found that ``Texas'' 
     approach has resulted in a fragmented, outdated system with 
     poor accountability, lack of statewide standards, and 
     inadequate training.''
       In the wake of the 2015 jail death of Sandra Bland in 
     Waller County, the carnage of the 2019 botched Harding Street 
     raid in Houston and the death in Austin later that year of 
     Javier Ambler after a police stop, scrutiny of police 
     practices and policies is long overdue. The Sunset report 
     only increases the urgency for Houston to move forward on 
     recent recommendations for reform at HPD and for Texas to 
     make fundamental changes at the state level.
       The Sunset process, which begins with the staff 
     recommendations, will eventually require lawmakers to pass 
     new enabling legislation for the agencies under review or 
     allow them to close. That's powerful leverage for lawmakers 
     who believe, as we do, that the Legislature should overhaul 
     the way the state certifies and regulates the 155,000 peace 
     officers, jailers, emergency telecommunications operators and 
     school marshals operating within 2,700 local law enforcement 
     agencies across Texas.
       The report makes clear that the current system too often 
     allows officers fired from one department to get hired by 
     another, fails to provide the basic levels of instruction 
     needed to support the demands of a fast-changing profession 
     and does not adequately inform the public about a government 
     service that is crucial to daily life and safety.
       A new state system needs to focus on transparency, training 
     and true accountability. That isn't the case now.
       The Sunset report found that Texas requires more time in 
     basic training for cosmetologists (1,000 hours) than for cops 
     (696 hours). Air conditioning and refrigeration contractors, 
     meanwhile, have to put in 2,000 hours of training to get 
     licensed. The Houston Police Department requires at least 48 
     semester hours of college credit for prospective officers but 
     a high school diploma or GED is enough in other parts of the 
     state.
       The type of training officers receive is also out of whack 
     with real world demands. Requiring 48 hours for firearms 
     training and 40 hours for instruction in arrest, search and 
     seizure is appropriate, but the regimen also includes four 
     hours of work on interacting with canines while requiring 
     only two hours on interacting with civilians.
       The standard Basic Peace Officer Course includes only four 
     hours for education on ``Family Violence, Child Victims, and 
     Related Assaultive Offenses'' and no special training for 
     dealing with rape victims.
       The fact that larger departments in places such as Houston, 
     Dallas and Harris County mandate, at local expense, more and 
     specialized training for officers only points out how much it 
     is needed as a basic state standard.
       This isn't about creating a one-size-fits-all program. It's 
     about certifying officers have the knowledge and skills to do 
     vital, dangerous and demanding jobs. The officers themselves 
     will be the first beneficiaries of these stepped-up training 
     requirements. The patchwork approach leaves standards for 
     policing to vary across the state's 254 counties, 1,200 
     cities and other jurisdictions, depending on widely disparate 
     resources, department culture and current leadership 
     attitudes about training. That's not how the law is supposed 
     to work.
       The Sunset report also raises questions about TCOLE's 
     ability to protect the public from bad cops, including the 
     way background checks are done and how information about 
     firings is handled.
       More than 600 Texas law enforcement officers received a 
     dishonorable discharge for misconduct last year with more 
     than a quarter of them being rehired to work as sworn 
     officers with their original departments or elsewhere in the 
     state. TCOLE is barred from revoking a license except in 
     cases of a criminal conviction or after a second dishonorable 
     discharge.
       That unwisely precludes an independent review by an agency 
     that is supposed to be upholding statewide standards.
       None of this is good for the public, which deserves 
     consistent and competent policing, nor for the officers who 
     deserve professional training and the respect that comes with 
     it.
       The Sunset Commission concludes that the current system 
     isn't working and recommends a blue ribbon panel to rethink 
     how Texas handles law enforcement regulation. Fine. But more 
     study is not enough. Lawmakers should hear from experts about 
     what it can do this session, beginning in January, to 
     strengthen TCOLE so that Texans can count on a police force 
     that is properly trained, a process that is publicly 
     transparent and a system that guards the public trust through 
     robust oversight.

  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I would like to start with this one 
on the ``Blistering Government Report Blasts Poor Training Oversight of 
Texas Law Enforcement.'' This is from the Houston Chronicle.
  The Houston Chronicle indicates: ``Last year, more than 600 Texas law 
enforcement officers received a dishonorable discharge from their 
agencies for misconduct. Yet more than a quarter of them were rehired 
to work as sworn officers.
  ``To qualify for a peace officer license, Texas cops need fewer hours 
of basic training than licensed cosmetologists and less than half the 
education required of air-conditioning and refrigeration contractors. 
While the basic training requires officers to spend 48 hours on the 
firing range, it demands only 2 hours of `civilian interaction' 
instruction.''
  Some things bear repeating: 48 hours on the firing range and 2 hours 
of civilian interaction instruction.
  Something has got to change, and I am pleased to see that the 
Chronicle is a part of the movement to bring about the change, the 
reform that is necessary.
  This story goes on to read, and it is dated, by the way, November 30, 
2020, at 10:16 a.m., when it was last updated.
  It goes on to indicate: `` . . . in Texas, the regulation of law 
enforcement is `by and large, toothless.'''
  This is from a sunset committee report.
  I want to focus for just a moment now on why this is so important to 
me.
  I have a constituent, a constituent who has made his transition, and 
it is because of an encounter with a peace officer in the State of 
Texas. I want to talk about Joshua Johnson and how the death of Joshua 
Johnson has had an impact on my life and, I believe, on the lives of 
many others who are familiar with this story.
  I believe his case is one for us to examine another way of taking 
these cases of questionable shootings by police before the authorities.
  In the case of Joshua Johnson, he was a 35-year-old Black man, and at 
6 a.m. on April 22, Joshua Johnson was housesitting for a neighbor. He 
went out of his home, or that home, and he went out into the street. He 
had an encounter with a peace officer who was there.
  Much has been said about the encounter, but what I will tell you now 
is based on facts, because we have an actual recording of what an 
officer has said that, in my opinion, has corrupted this investigation.
  Joshua had this encounter, and as a result, he was shot twice. He, 
later on, died.
  But let's not continue from this point. Let's step back for just a 
moment.
  His parents lived within yards of where he died. His father took his 
mother to work that morning, and when he returned, his son had lost his 
life. He acquired the opportunity to go and bring his wife to the area 
near the scene, and there was an investigating officer there.
  This officer took it upon himself to explain to the Bearys--these are 
the parents of Joshua, Ms. Wilhelmena Beary and Mr. Richard Beary. He 
took it upon himself to tell them what the facts were.
  He told them that their son approached this officer who was in a car, 
a vehicle, and that this officer told their son to lower a pistol. It 
was a BB pistol, according to the report. The son

[[Page H7042]]

had his phone flashlight on. He did not lower the pistol, and as a 
result, he was shot twice and he was killed.
  Now, the officer that called this to the attention of the Bearys did 
not talk to the officer who did the shooting. He did not have the 
benefit of a video recording. He did not have the benefit of an autopsy 
report because one had not been performed. This was just 2 hours after 
Joshua's death.
  He did not have the benefit of a ballistics report. He did not talk 
to the medical examiner before making these statements. There was no 
way for him to know what he would say, but he said it, and it has 
become the narrative for Joshua's death.
  This officer who shot Joshua twice--and this is the part that will 
tear at your heart--he shot Joshua twice and drove away, shot him twice 
and left the scene and drove away and went around the corner.
  If he shot him because he was in fear of his life, and this is 
typically what is said, should he not have concern for the lives of 
people in that neighborhood that he was sworn to protect?
  Joshua didn't die immediately, but he did die within some short time 
after he was shot.
  So the Bearys find themselves being told how their son died by 
someone who didn't see it, didn't have a video recording of it, didn't 
have an autopsy report, didn't have a ballistics report, didn't talk to 
the medical examiner. They had someone who literally gave them a story 
that some conclude was made up.
  Can you imagine? Your son is on the ground. Your son is there. You 
can't go over and see your son. And you are told that your son has died 
because he pulled a BB pistol on a peace officer.
  This is important in terms of what the officer said because of this 
training: 2 hours of civilian interaction instruction, not nearly 
enough.
  That officer who was investigating should have been better trained 
such that he would not have told this story without having more of the 
actual facts, such that what he would tell them they could believe.
  No ballistics report. No autopsy report. No conversation with the 
medical examiner. Didn't talk to the officer who shot Joshua. Yet he 
told them that these were the facts in terms of how their son had lost 
his life.
  This officer needed better training. Unfortunately, in Texas, they 
are not getting this training at this time, and I am proud of the 
Chronicle for pointing it out.
  But he also needs training in terms of how you present yourself and 
how you protect the people in the neighborhood that he was in.
  Let's talk about the shooter.
  How can a police officer shoot a person twice, not be fired upon, and 
simply drive away? It makes no sense. Drive away.
  If you believe that this person was a threat, wouldn't you want to 
protect the people that you are sworn to protect and defend by staying 
there, or wouldn't you call for additional help?
  You shoot him twice and you leave. Joshua died.
  There is more to the story, but my point tonight is this. The Houston 
Chronicle has apparently decided that enough is enough and that there 
should be better policing in the State of Texas.
  I have decided that there is another way to deal with these cases. 
The grand jury is one means by which we can take cases to court, but 
there is another way.
  In Texas, we have something called the court of inquiry. I believe 
that it is time for us to use this tool, the court of inquiry, to get 
the facts and have transparency such that the public can understand 
what is happening, that they cannot acquire intelligence on when these 
cases go before a grand jury because it is all sworn to secrecy. No one 
can tell you what happened before the grand jury. Maybe the district 
attorney can give you some semblance of what happened.
  But the court of inquiry allows any person who believes that a crime 
has been committed to go before a district judge and explain what the 
facts are. And if that judge believes that there is probable cause to 
believe that a crime has been committed, then that judge goes to 
another judge, an administrative judge, and makes an appeal to the 
administrative judge to convene the court of inquiry, then a third 
judge will actually conduct the court of inquiry.
  I think that in the State of Texas, because of the training--or the 
absence thereof--as it relates to our peace officers, this court of 
inquiry is going to be of great benefit as we move forward.
  It is time to change the paradigm. Simply allowing these cases to go 
before a grand jury and never know what actually happened is not 
enough.
  I believe that the Houston Chronicle has set a proper course for us 
to move in a direction that will change policing in the State of Texas, 
and I would invite persons to please read these two articles that I 
have called to your attention.
  Mr. Speaker, I leave you and all who are listening with these words:
  Joshua Johnson shouldn't have lost his life that morning.
  Joshua Johnson shouldn't be another statistic.
  Joshua should be with his parents.
  My prayer is that these parents will receive the justice they deserve 
because they have been waiting approximately 230 days for some decision 
from law enforcement, and they have not had that decision.
  There is some hope. The district attorney's office is moving forward 
with an investigation. My prayer is that this family will receive the 
justice that they deserve because their son shouldn't have lost his 
life on the 22nd of April this year at approximately 6 a.m.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________