Maine lawmakers endorsed a bill Wednesday that would make it easier to identify police officers with histories of criminal misconduct who are looking to move from one department to another.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Scott Cyrway, R-Albion, would require a prospective employer to report any suspected or confirmed criminal activity uncovered during a background investigation or polygraph exam to the applicant’s current employer. The Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee voted Wednesday to recommend passage.
Cyrway said he submitted the bill at the request of the Department of Public Safety.
“I know of some situations where this would have been important,” Cyrway said in an interview after the vote, although he would not provide details. “They just want quality people in law enforcement and corrections.”
The unanimous committee vote comes amid calls for police reform across the country. Reform efforts began after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 and were renewed last month after the police killing of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols, who was beaten to death by five officers during a traffic stop in Memphis on Jan. 7.
Among other potential reforms, President Biden and members of Congress are pushing for a nationwide database of such misconduct by officers to prevent them from moving to another department or state after facing discipline for excessive use of force or other criminal behavior.
With federal legislation stalled, a 2021 report from the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice said states are increasingly taking action to prevent police with troubled pasts from moving from one department to another. At least 14 states enacted laws in the prior year that either added or strengthened the process for decertifying officers, while 13 states enacted laws requiring agencies to report misconduct to the state.
Cyrway said state law does not explicitly give a prospective employer the right to notify an applicant’s current employer if a background investigation produces probable cause of past or current criminal activity. That means that if a prospective employer discovers an applicant has been charged – or has charges pending – during a background investigation, they might be reluctant to share that information with the officer’s current boss because of privacy concerns, he said.
Cyrway’s bill, L.D. 96, would require the sharing of that information between the heads of each agency and require the current employer to conduct an internal investigation.
“It doesn’t mean they automatically terminate a person because they have probable cause,” he said.
The bill received strong support from the Maine Criminal Justice Academy, which trains and certifies law enforcement officers, and the Maine Sheriffs’ Association.
Hancock County Sheriff Scott Kane testified during a hearing Jan. 30 that the sheriffs’ association voted unanimously and “enthusiastically” in support of the bill, saying it aligns with a statement the association issued with other law enforcement agencies following the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.
“Releasing background investigation material to current employers of law enforcement and corrections enables us to uphold our vow to attract, hire and retain only the best police candidates,” Kane said.
Robert Desjardins, director of the criminal justice academy, said the academy conducts intensive background investigations and polygraph examinations when certifying officers, who must then confirm on an annual basis that they comply with mandatory training and statutory requirements for restricted behavior. Agencies are required to report any prohibited conduct or criminal activity to the academy with 30 days of discovering it, he said.
Cyrway’s bill, Desjardins said, “will help resolve an existing weakness” in the current system by not only requiring that any subsequent background investigation information be reported to the officer’s current employer, but also that the current employer then conduct an investigation and report any prohibited conduct to the district attorney, attorney general and the academy, among others.
“I believe the vast majority of Maine s law enforcement and corrections professionals have the highest degree of ethics and integrity and work tirelessly to serve Maine’s citizens,” he testified on Jan. 30. “However, when a member of our profession conducts themselves contrary to the ethical standards of our profession, we support appropriate actions to identify the behavior, make corrections or remove these individuals from our profession when needed.”
While nobody opposed the bill, the Maine Municipal Association expressed concerns that prospective employers – primarily towns and cities – could become entangled in legal actions if an officer’s employment is terminated as a result of the background information shared between agencies.
That led the committee to amend the bill to require applicants to sign a waiver during the interview process granting prospective employers access to the officers’ personnel records, formalizing current practice, and allowing that prospective employer to communicate results of their background check to the current employer.
The bill faces additional votes in the Legislature.
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