NH Senate Passes SB 96
Contact Name: Marina Altschiller
Phone: (603) 271-3207
CONCORD – Today, the Senate unanimously voted to pass SB 96, a bill derived from the recommendations made by the New Hampshire Commission on Law Enforcement Accountability, Community, and Transparency (LEACT). Prior to the unanimous vote, Senate Republicans yet again voted to remove a number of key recommendations made by the LEACT commission despite pushback from Senate Democrats.
After the vote, Senate Judiciary Committee members Senator Becky Whitley (D-Hopkinton) and Senator Jay Kahn (D-Keene) issued the following statement:
“This summer, the LEACT Commission met 26 times over the course of 10 weeks to develop legislative recommendations for New Hampshire to begin to address the national call to action in regards to racial justice. Unfortunately, Senate Republicans stripped from the bill all the language relative to data collection, which was unanimously recommended by the LEACT Commission and a broad group of stakeholders who drafted the bill.
Data collection allows agencies to assess the existence of racial disparities and use any findings to acknowledge and respond to the issues appropriately. The LEACT commission discussed this issue at length and their recommendations recognized the need for more standardized, transparent record keeping. While we are proud to have supported the remaining recommendations, we are disappointed that our Republican colleagues chose to disregard a portion of the critical work done by the LEACT Commission, which would have informed future policy work to enhance public safety.”
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