PROVIDENCE — Time is running out on efforts to reform a decades-old police accountability law in Rhode Island, as the legislative session is set to adjourn as soon as Thursday.
A new version of the bill sponsored by Senate President Dominick Ruggerio emerged Tuesday night, but it has an uncertain future in the House, even if approved by the Senate.
“I can’t defend those changes that the Senate proposed,” said state Representative Ray Hull, one of the lead sponsors of the House effort to change the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights.
Hull, who is deputy speaker and a Providence police sergeant, said he believes the efforts are dead until next year.
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“How much time do we really have to hash this out?” Hull said Wednesday. “You can see the writing on the wall.”
House Speaker Joe Shekarchi said he would reserve judgment on the new Senate bill until it comes to the House for consideration.
Ruggerio’s new proposal is an amended version of one originally sponsored by state Senator Ana Quezada, a Providence Democrat. But her name no longer appears as a sponsor on the amended bill, which was posted Tuesday night for a committee vote on Wednesday.
Quezada told the Globe she removed her name because Ruggerio’s amended bill includes a majority of police officers on the reworked disciplinary panel that would decide officers’ punishments.
“I love the police, I work with the police, I support the police,” Quezada said. “But I don’t believe the police should be supervising police.”
“Who is going to always win? The police,” she said.
The oft-criticized police law protects officers accused of wrongdoing, giving them a right to a hearing by a panel of fellow law enforcement officers before a police chief can punish the officer beyond two days’ suspension.
In practice, the law can delay an officer’s punishment for months or even years, especially if a criminal case is involved. Providence Sergeant Joseph Hanley, for example, is still still on the force — receiving benefits, but no pay — more than three years after he was accused of kicking and punching a handcuffed man in April 2020.
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Hanley was convicted of misdemeanor assault by a Providence District Court judge in 2021, but is appealing to the R.I. Superior Court, where he will get a jury trial. The LEOBOR law says the hearing on his potential firing from the Providence Police Department can’t take place until after his appeal is decided.
Other high-profile cases including Pawtucket Officer Dan Dolan — who shot a teenager in while off duty outside a West Greenwich pizza shop — have fueled the conversation about changing the law this year.
The city of Pawtucket wants to fire Dolan, who was acquitted of the criminal charges against him in January. Under the LEOBOR law, he received $123,000 in back pay after the acquittal and is now awaiting the LEOBOR hearing on his potential termination.
Ruggerio’s new proposal would change the makeup of the LEOBOR hearing panel to include three active police officers randomly selected from a pool, along with one member from the Nonviolence Institute, a nonprofit organization, and one retired judge.
Hull said because the Nonviolence Institute receives funding from police, he could not support the makeup of the panel in the new Senate bill.
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“How are they going to be objective when they’re getting fed by the police?” Hull asked.
Hull’s proposal would also include three law enforcement officers, as well as the executive director of the R.I. Human Rights Commission, plus a retired judge.
Ruggerio’s amendment and Hull’s bill would both extend the number of unpaid suspension days from two to 14 before the LEOBOR process could take place.
A competing House proposal was introduced earlier this year by Providence state Representative Jose Batista, whose bill goes farther than Hull’s, allowing police chiefs to fire officers without first going through a LEOBOR hearing.
The bill would then allow officers to appeal their punishments to the panel, which could overturn the decision. Batista said cases involving excessive force on civilians should be treated differently than minor internal offenses.
“Even the past two or three years, we’ve seen a couple of really extreme cases with Dolan and [Jeann] Lugo and Hanley,” Batista said. “For those types of cases to have to wait years to get before a LEOBOR hearing seems preposterous.”
Batista also said he does not support Ruggerio’s new Senate bill, arguing it does not go far enough to reform the law.
Steph Machado can be reached at steph.machado@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @StephMachado.