Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Lansing are trying to increase transparency in police hiring. A bill cleared the Senate today dealing with personnel records.
Right now human resource units in police departments are reluctant to tell other departments anything about a former officer besides their name and when they worked for them out of fear of litigation if the officer doesn’t get the job.
Senator Jones says the legislation is meant to prevent bad officers from hopping from department to department.
“99.9 percent of all officers are the finest people in the world. But once in a while you get a bad apple.”
The legislation would also make police departments immune from lawsuits stemming from the release of personnel files.