Arizona lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1445 on March 18, 2015 in Arizona’s House of Representatives. This bill would prevent “all law enforcement agencies to release the name of officers involved in [situations where physical force leads to death or serious physical injury].”
The side that supports the bill argues that this protects the
officer’s well-being who is not a suspect.
Supporters state that the community still get to know the details of the
situation, just not “who”.
Those who oppose this bill argue that this bill would just
make the trust gap between police officers and the community deeper and
increase tension between the two sides, especially during a time when so many
unarmed black men are killed by police officers.
I feel that this bill will be a hindrance rather than a
useful tool. In fact, I find this ludicrous. One statement of this article that bothered me
was that the supportive side of this bill said that this bill protects the
officer’s well-being who is not a
suspect. How do we know this officer is not a suspect? Have the police
already produced the situation’s diagnostic? If they already know what happened,
why withhold the information of an innocent witness?
We deserve to know who is involved in the crime scene,
regardless of what job position he or she has. With tension between police
officers and the African American community, this bill only shows that police
officers don’t trust the people. Trust is the main ideal that needs to be shown
to both officers and blacks during this time so that the gap between these two
sides can be filled.
I feel this bill is just one of the many things the U.S.
government keeps from us. We deserve to know what our government is doing if it
affects us or others.
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