HB601 (Original Version) would have prohibited political subdivisions from adopting or attempting to enforce any ordinance involving “civilian oversight of a law enforcement agency” in relation to investigating complaints of officer misconduct.
The House initially passed HB601 on February 22, 2024, by a vote of 87 to 29, prior to it being amended. We have assigned pluses to the yeas for this vote because unelected “civilian review boards” are used by radical anti-police activists who seek to redefine public safety in America by exerting control over state and local law enforcement. First advocated by the Communist Party USA in the 1930s, and then more recently following the death of George Floyd in 2020, “civilian review boards” unduly restrict police from enforcing criminal laws. They do so by acting as prosecutor, judge, and jury in cases of alleged police corruption or brutality. Yet, Article IV, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution guarantees to “every State”—and by devolvement, its political subdivisions—“a Republican Form of Government,” which implies government limited to the ‘rule of law,” with a separation of powers among representative officials, who alone exercise civil authority of, by, and for the people. The policymaking process, including oversight, belongs to the constitutionally authorized legislative bodies of government.