The Municipal Association of SC Risk Management Services will have its first-ever conference to discuss a wide range of risk-related concerns for cities and towns, taking place in Columbia on August 25 – 27. The conference will be free for members of the SC Municipal Insurance Trust and SC Municipal Insurance and Risk Financing Fund.
A key issue to be discussed is Act 218, also known as the Law Enforcement Betterment Bill, a law which codified many law enforcement standards statewide and aimed to improve safety in police practices. The law led to significant changes in the ways that South Carolina law enforcement organizations operate, and so all cities and towns with police departments need to audit their practices to ensure they are complying with its provisions.
Here are some key aspects of the law:
- Officer certification – All police recruits must complete their SC Criminal Justice Academy certification to work as police officers, or must otherwise be accompanied by a certified officer at all times.
- Failure to intervene and misconduct reporting – Act 218 established police officers’ “willful failure to intervene” when they observe another officer abusing someone as a form of police misconduct. The law also requires law enforcement agencies to report officer misconduct to the SCCJA within 15 days of completing an internal investigation.
- Chokeholds restricting airflow or carotid holds restricting bloodflow – The law established that officers may only use these against a person in cases where the use of deadly force is justified, such as when a person’s life is in danger.
Minimum standards and policies
Act 218 also updated and mandated a set of minimum standards for law enforcement agencies as adopted by the SC Law Enforcement Training Council. Risk Management Services drafted model policies for each of the standards, available for use by all cities and towns.
The minimum standard policies involve these points:
- Use of force and response to active resistance – The use of force policy outlines the force that officers may use in a variety of circumstances, including verbal commands, “soft empty hand control,” “hard hand control,” and in extreme situations where life must be protected, deadly force.
- Uniform vehicle pursuit and emergency vehicle operation standards – These policies cover the factors that police must consider when initiating a pursuit, pursuit restrictions, ongoing evaluations of the pursuit and reasons for ending a pursuit.
- Duty to intervene – The policy requires officers to prevent or stop the unreasonable use of force, any unethical act, or any act that violates state or federal law, ordinance or agency policy.
- Hiring and terminating practices – The policy states that the department will hire only qualified candidates, as it “seeks the highest level of professionalism and integrity by its members.”
- Body-worn cameras – This standard indicates the circumstances when they must operate these cameras, and how they must handle the recordings created.
- Search warrants – This set of model policies addresses the steps that officers must use to obtain warrants, and steps to take when executing “no-knock” warrants.
- Systems and processes for filing and investigating complaints – This covers how to handle reports of officer misconduct.
- Early-warning system for at-risk officer behavior – This establishes a system for identifying and addressing those “employees exhibiting symptoms of stress or other behavior that could pose a liability to the community, the Department or the officer.”
Other topics at the Risk Management Services Conference include First Amendment auditors and sovereign citizens, reducing risk in terminations, changing weather patterns in South Carolina, cybersecurity, and public works policies and procedures. Registration information will include a discounted hotel room rate, and registration will open June 30.