‘I don’t hear a lot about the simple assaults,’ says Attorney General Peter Neronha
PROVIDENCE — As pressure builds on Rhode Island lawmakers to make changes to the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, Attorney General Peter Neronha is preparing to unveil his own policy package designed to give his office a front-and-center role in officer misconduct cases.
Neronha said he plans to ask police chiefs across the state to begin referring potential misdemeanor misconduct cases to the attorney general’s office, rather than the traditional process of having municipal attorneys handle those cases.
While a case like the death of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis would have ultimately come to the attorney general’s office for investigation if it happened in Rhode Island, Neronha said he wants to “expand our review of misdemeanor conduct” of officers, which are more common than felony cases.
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“I don’t hear a lot about the simple assaults,” Neronha, a Democrat who was elected with overwhelming support in 2018, said in an interview last week.
State Senator Harold Metts, a Providence Democrat, has been tapped by Senate President Dominick Ruggerio to lead a 13-member commission that will study the officers’ bill of rights, a 44-year-old law that police chiefs across the state say handcuffs them from taking significant disciplinary action against troubled officers.
The officers’ bill of rights has come under renewed scrutiny in the wake of Floyd’s death because police department leaders have said the law would have prevented them from immediately terminating the officer accused of killing him. A two-day suspension would have been the maximum discipline the officer could have received until he was charged with a crime, or until the chief initiated a hearing process that involves a three-member disciplinary panel made up of active or retired officers.
If an officer is being investigated for a crime or is charged with one, he or she can be suspended for a longer period, or fired. But the law gives chiefs little discretion in their decision-making, and officers may be entitled to back pay if they are cleared of wrongdoing.
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Neronha, whose department rarely becomes involved in officers’ bill of rights cases, has committed to sitting on Metts’ review commission, which will also include three senators, State Police Superintendent Colonel James Manni, one local police chief, and several civic leaders and community members.
The AFL-CIO has a spot on the commission, but it’s unclear if the organization will ask a member of the police union to be its representative.
While a review of the law will take months, and a significant overhaul will likely be met with significant opposition from police unions across the state, Neronha said he believes his proposal would not require legislative approval. Instead, he said, it would ask police chiefs to agree to refer more misdemeanor cases to his office.
Neronha said his office has already worked with some local police departments on misdemeanor cases, including an investigation into an April incident that led to Providence Police Sergeant Joseph Hanley being charged with simple assault for allegedly striking a man who was handcuffed.
“We’ve encouraged local departments to bring cases to us,” Neronha said.
Sid Wordell, the executive director of the Rhode Island Police Chiefs’ Association, said his office is still reviewing Neronha’s proposal.
Neronha declined to specify what other proposals he has introduced to the police chiefs, but he said that his department will no longer come to agreements with police departments to allow troubled officers to resign in exchange for the attorney’s office not prosecuting the case.
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Neronha, a former US attorney, said those kinds of agreements have long made him uncomfortable, even if they often accomplish the goal of removing an officer from the force. He said he doesn’t want to see an officer who may have committed a crime on the job be allowed to resign, and still qualify for a pension.
“My view is that if a police officer commits a crime, then they ought to be treated like everyone else,” Neronha said.
Dan McGowan can be reached at dan.mcgowan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @danmcgowan.
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