The Arizona state Senate on Tuesday passed legislation that would keep secret for 60 days the names of police officers involved in shootings, sending the bill to Gov. Doug Ducey’s (R) desk.
The bill would cover officers “involved in a use of deadly physical force incident that results in death or serious physical injury.”
Ducey’s office on Wednesday said that the governor would review the bill, but he has not yet indicated whether he will sign the legislation, according to the New York Times.
The legislation comes after the Justice Department announced it would not charge Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of unarmed black teen Michael Brown. Wilson reportedly resigned from the Ferguson Police Department following the incident because he received threats of violence against him.
Supporters of the Arizona bill argue that it would protect police officers from such threats.
But civil rights advocates oppose the bill, as does the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police, since the legislation would not let local officials make decisions on a case-by-case basis, according to the New York Times.
Wonder if the bill would also prohibit releasing the names of people accused of crimes. Yeah, right.
If you’re job is to “serve and protect the public” then you should be held accountable to the public for your actions immediately, not 60 days later while the PR flacks have the time to clean up the mess.
Authoritarian entitlement is almost always manifested in some version of ‘Since we’re righteous, ispo facto, the “rules” and constraints are for “the others”.’
Wow. For such tough-talking hombres, Teabaggers are the biggest fraidy cats I can think of.
But I would not be at all surprised that it delays identification of people shot by police.