Pa. Senate committee approves police reform bills banning chokeholds, requiring use of force policies

Senate Bill 459 requires municipal law enforcement departments to adopt a use of force policy and to train officers on procedures allowed under the policy.

• By Jan Murphy/PennLive

A Pennsylvania Senate committee on Monday took a step toward responding to cries for policing reforms by passing bills that ban most chokeholds and require police departments to have a use of force policy.

This action by the Senate Law and Justice Committee comes just days after it, along with the Senate Judiciary Committee, held two days of hearings on various law enforcement and criminal justice equality and accountability concerns.

Law and Justice Committee Chairman Pat Stefano, R-Fayette County, called the committee’s consideration of the bills an important first step in addressing those issues that were vetted during the hearings.

Senate Bill 459 requires municipal law enforcement departments to adopt a use of force policy and to train officers on procedures allowed under the policy. Further, it requires those departments to report use of force events to the state police when they occur.

“It’s an appropriate good first step as we move through the process of addressing many of these measures along these lines,” said Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa of Allegheny County, who sponsored the bill.

Senate Bill 1205 prohibits use of chokeholds except in situations when the use of deadly force is permitted. Sen. Sharif Street, D-Philadelphia, who sponsored the bill, said the measure describes chokeholds as “any physical maneuver which restricts an individual’s ability to breathe for the purposes of incapacitation.”

These reforms come in response to the public outcry in the wake of the May 25 murder of George Floyd, who died after being pinned on a Minneapolis street under police officer Derek Chauvin’s knee, Street said. Similarly, he said it would have prevented the death of Eric Garner who died in 2014 in Staten Island from the chokehold New York City police officer Daniel Pantaleo put on him during an arrest.

”These techniques are not consistent with good policing as recognized by many officers around the commonwealth,” Street said.

Both bills passed the committee unanimously and now could be positioned for a vote by the full Senate as early as Wednesday. Meanwhile, over in the House, two multi-faceted bills aimed at strengthening police hiring practices and training are in a position to allow them to be voted as soon as Wednesday as well.

Both chambers are fast-tracking legislation to address the concerns that have inspired protests about police brutality and racial injustice across many communities in the commonwealth.

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