Wednesday, July 22, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
23
Oregon, other states putting names of ousted police online
By Andrew Selsky
Associated Press
SALEM (AP) 4 In the
aftermath of the death of
George Floyd in police cus-
tody, Oregon has released
the names of over 1,700 offi-
cers whose transgressions
over the past 50 years were
so serious that they were
banned from working in law
enforcement in the state.
The online posting last
week came after the state
Legislature created a law
requiring the Department of
Public Safety Standards and
Training to establish a state-
wide public database of offi-
cers whose certification has
been revoked or suspended.
<Those who are revoked
have tarnished the badge
and no longer have the trust
of their community, their
agency, or our agency as the
certifying body,= department
director Eriks Gabliks told
The Associated Press.
The web site includes a
spreadsheet with the names
of decertified officers going
back to 1971. In at least
SCHOOL YEAR:
Plans may change
as situation evolves
Continued from page 1
can readily be traced. That
creates challenges for deliv-
ering different levels of
instruction and providing
electives.
<To keep all those cohorts
separate is almost impossi-
ble on a comprehensive high
school schedule. Math is
going to be the biggest chal-
lenge in trying to keep those
cohorts separate,= Scholl
said.
That9s because differ-
ent students in a cohort will
need instruction at different
levels.
Keeping the cohorts sepa-
rate is important, because
state guidance requires that a
cohort be isolated if a <clus-
ter= of COVID-19 cases
develops.
<The biggest the cohort,
the bigger the risk of
one instance, a police offi-
cer who was decertified in
Oregon obtained employ-
ment in law enforcement in
another state, a situation that
some say points to the need
for a comprehensive, nation-
wide database.
Former Coquille, Oregon,
police officer Sean Sullivan
was convicted of harassment
in 2005 for kissing a 10-year-
old girl on the mouth. A year
later, he became chief of
police of the tiny town of
Cedar Vale, Kansas. He quit
that job while being investi-
gated there.
In the absence of an offi-
cial nationwide database, a
nonprofit maintains a website
intended to be a national reg-
istry of certificate or license
revocations. The National
Decertification Index pro-
vides access to records from
agencies in 44 states and was
created by the International
Association of Directors of
Law Enforcement Standards
and Training.
Five states 4 Hawaii,
Massachusetts, California,
New Jersey and Rhode
Island 4 do not certify offi-
cers, and one, Georgia, does
decertify but doesn9t contrib-
ute to the registry, said Mike
Becar, executive director of
the nonprofit.
<More needs to be done,=
he said in an email. <First the
NDI is voluntary so we have
states like Georgia that don9t
contribute and the ones that
do could stop at any time.
Second, many states can only
decertify for crimes, some
only for felony convictions,
but many forms of miscon-
duct conducted by officers
are not crimes but need to be
investigated.=
The registry is for use by
law enforcement agencies
having to shut down the
entire school,= Scholl said.
Scholl said the schools
recognize how important co-
curricular activities are to
students and families 4 and
there9s just no clear mes-
sage yet on how they will
proceed.
<We9re not sure what9s
going to happen with bands,
choirs, plays, athletics,=
Scholl said.
Surveys have gone out
from individual schools
seeking input from families,
and a general survey is also
available. Scholl encourages
people to weigh in at the July
29 Superintendent9s Coffee
via Zoom or contact him
directly at curtiss.scholl@
ssd6.org; or call 541-549-
8521. (See the green box on
page 2 for ways to weigh in.)
The district is to receive
additional guidance from
the Oregon Department of
Education this week and
again on August 11, and will
continue to develop plans
that must be submitted to
ODE by August 15.
<Our plan is to have a
really good plan going into
the board meeting, which
is (August 12) and then we
have to submit it by the
15th,= Scholl said.
An engaged and support-
ive community has Sisters
schools positioned to cope
with the strains of what
promises to be a complicated
and challenging school year,
but Scholl acknowledges
that there9s no pretending
things are going to roll along
smoothly.
<We9re better equipped
(than many other districts)
and we9ll be ready,= he said.
<But it9s not going to be
perfect.=
... many forms of
misconduct conducted
by officers are not
crimes but need to
be investigated.
— Mike Becar
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but includes links, accessi-
ble by the public, to records
from 11 states, not all of
which include names in their
documents.
Causes for decertification
ranged from an officer call-
ing in sick for his shift while
drunk at a college football
game to aggravated battery,
drug use, and homicide.
The national outcry
after the killing of Floyd in
Minneapolis has accelerated
states moving toward greater
transparency about bad
actors in law enforcement,
said Amber Widgery, who
specializes in justice issues
at the National Conference
of State Legislatures.
<We9ve seen unprec-
edented, swift responses,<
Widgery said.
" In Colorado, a police
reform bill just signed into
law mandates creation of a
database like Oregon9s by
Jan. 1, 2022.
" A bill working its way
through the New York
Legislature would require
a public database contain-
ing the names of any officer
who has had their employ-
ment terminated due to
misconduct.
" Ohio has pending bills
that would establish a data-
base of records of police
officers9 use of force.
State Sen. Lew Frederick,
who was among lawmakers
who sponsored the database
bill in Oregon, said the push
needs to go further.
<The next step is to have
information more broadly
available about discipline
and complaints,< Frederick
said. <And have a robust sys-
tem of effective community
oversight boards watching
use of force activities and
hiring/transfer policies.=
New Jersey Attorney
General Gurbir Grewal tried
to accomplish at least part of
that last month, by ordering
all state, county and local
law enforcement agencies
to divulge the names of law
enforcement officers who
commit serious disciplin-
ary violations. The order is
now on hold amid legal chal-
lenges from several police
unions.