A Senate panel has rejected a bill ending qualified immunity for law enforcement officials. The legal precedent shields police officers from being sued for wrongdoing.
Police officers across Virginia are protected from being sued by a judicial doctrine known as qualified immunity. That’s become increasingly controversial in the era of Black Lives Matter, which is why Delegate Jeff Bourne of Richmond introduced a bill to end qualified immunity for police officers.
That bill passed the House and then made its way over to the Senate Judiciary Committee. “We are really trying to give folks access to justice," Bourne told the committee Thursday evening. "That’s really what it boils down to. I don’t suspect that my testimony, and my answers to these questions are going to change anybody’s position on this bill.”
Senate Democrats rejected the bill, ending the effort for now. But the Senate did approve a policing reform bill that Senator Scott Surovell says may reduce the need for Bourne’s bill on qualified immunity. “They can be immune if there’s ambiguity about what the law is. So if there’s a clear rule, if there’s a clear standard you don’t get qualified immunity. This bill puts a bunch of clear rules in the code so you don’t have to go read a bunch of cases to try and figure out what the law is.”
The policing reform bill doesn’t end qualified immunity, but Senate Democrats say they hope the standard of conduct in the bill will allow officers to be charged for wrongdoing.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
