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Minutes for Emergency E-Board Meeting On-Line Meeting
February 15, 2020
11:00 hrs
Attending were:
- President Shanks
- Vice President Black
- Treasurer Slaughter
- Secretary Ryan
- Parliamentarian Asmussen
- State Attorney McCauley
President Shanks called this meeting to address the State Lodge’s position on the issues of HB 2424, HB 2667 and SB 430. A hearing was scheduled in the House Judiciary committee on Tuesday February 18th and the State FOP needed to decide if and how they we were going to address this issue.
President Shanks sent out a message to all of the membership via the website e-mail system. It asked for responses from anyone who had opinions on this matter. There were NO responses from any of the membership. See the
State Attorney McCauley gave an overall briefing of what he felt these bills represented and answered questions about the bills.
All three bills surround the issues of Officer Involved Death, who investigates such and what information is released post-investigation.
After discussion, the executive board opted to oppose the two house bills HB 2424 and HB 2667 in their present forms.
The meeting ended at 11:47 hrs
President Shanks, State Lobbyist John Pinegar and State Attorney Sean McCauley collaborated on written testimony which was submitted to the House Judiciary Committee and was entered into record.
Sent to all lodges via the website several days prior to the Executive Board Meeting.
To All Lodges,
Today, we have been advised that House Bill 2424 on Officer Involved Deaths will be up for discussion on Tuesday February 18, 2020 at 3:30 pm in the House Judiciary Committee in room 346-South.
We have also learned that a second alternative bill House Bill 2667 has also been introduced by Rep. Resman from Olathe. This bill was just published today. They will both be addressed at the same time. I have uploaded both bills to STATE LEGISLATIVE UPDATES under Member Resources on this website.
We just learned about both this alternative bill and the hearing within the past 24 hours, so all of this is brand new information to us.
Our Lobbyist, John Pinegar is keeping us apprised of the developments as he learns about them. We continue to consult with the FOP State Attorney, Sean McCauley about the best ways to proceed. They both feel this is an important issue which you all may want to carefully examine.
However, if your local lodge wishes to have input on this or any of the legislation, please feel free to contact John Pinegar at jpinegar@sbcglobal.net or call him at 785-235-6245. You can send information to me and I will make sure he gets it.
Mik Shanks
After the hearing the following Update was posted on the website.
UPDATE:
The hearing was held on Tuesday. The committee heard testimony on both bills. There was both written and verbal testimony in favor, opposed and neutral on both bills.
The sponsor of HB 2424 stated that this was not an anti-Law Enforcement Bill. However, much of the testimony in favor of the bill misused the term "transparency" and equated anything non-transparent as mistrust in the Law Enforcement. They tended to group Law Enforcement/Investigations and Prosecution together. As you well know, these are separate. Most of the testimony in favor came from the families of persons who died during these type of incidents as well as press/media. They based their appeal on wanting more, if not all the investigative records because they did not trust in what they pre-conceived as lack of transparency.
Neutral testimony mostly came from State Agencies such as the KBI and League of Municipalities.
There was testimony in Opposition to these bills. Kansas State FOP joined the Kansas Sheriff's Association, The Kansas Association of Chiefs of Police, the Kansas Police Officers Association, the Association of Kansas Prosecutors and several others in written testimony. The KACP and KSA gave written testimony.
There was a significant acknowledgement that there was a lot of work to be done on either Bill. The proponents of the bill’s final cast was that “something needs to be done.” There was a general thought that the issue should have review and revision in order to address some of the conflicts. It is unknown that this would come to fruition this year or not.
FOP Lobbyist, John Pinegar later talked to Representative Fred Patton, the Chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary who indicated he does not plan to take any further action on these bills this session and he will either ask the Kansas County and District Attorney’s Association to study the issue or refer the matter to the Kansas Judicial Council for Review.
John Pinegar, Lobbyist
Mik Shanks, President
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