[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Texas police and outdated and inadequate officer training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.
____________________