LINCOLN- After hearing many rural senators concerns over LB51, the Nebraska Legislature adopted a pair of compromise amendments Monday evening. Last summer, following the murder of George Floyd, 200 Nebraskans testified about their interactions with police over two days of Judiciary hearings. Following those stories, Sen. Steve Lathrop introduced LB51, which is a bill to increase annual training for officers, psychological examinations for new recruits, mandates that departments adopt policies on an officer's duty to intervene when excessive force is being used and bans the use of chokeholds and other restraints except when using deadly force is authorized.

Rural senators discussed how burdensome these new requirements would be on rural law enforcement departments. Sen. Tom Brewer then introduced amendments that would address those concerns, which were both approved. The bill will be considered for final reading in late May.

“You have to understand that if we increase the requirements for training, it does directly impact them,” Brewer said. “Both the cost and for the county to be without their law enforcement officer, or half of their law enforcement, for a time.”

Read the full article by clicking HERE