AUGUSTA, Maine — A bill is working its way through the Maine Legislature that would change how police are able to interact with drivers who they've pulled over for a traffic stop.
LD 417, 'An Act to Protect Maine's Drivers from Pretextual Traffic Stops,' has lawmakers in Augusta in heated debate.
Proponents like Rep. Charlotte Warren (D) say the bill would deter profiling. "This bill is about fairness. This bill does not take a single tool away," Warren argued in a House debate on Tuesday, June 15.
Opponents of the bill like Rep. Richard Pickett (R), who also has a lengthy career in law enforcement, say the bill would hinder good policing. In Tuesday's debate, Pickett said, "The result of this bill becoming law would be to handcuff police, destroy quality police work, leave the people of Maine with far less protection and further protect criminals from honest prosecution."
A summary of LD 417, as written by those who drafted the bill, is as follows:
"This bill prohibits a law enforcement officer from stopping a motor vehicle an occupant of which the law enforcement officer suspects is engaging in criminal activity for a motor vehicle violation not related to that criminal activity. The bill also provides that evidence obtained in a traffic stop in violation of this provision may not be used in any criminal proceeding."
In other words, the bill prohibits law enforcement from stopping a vehicle and occupant under the pretext of a traffic violation, when in reality, the officer suspects the occupant is breaking another law.
The bill also makes it so that evidence police gather from a traffic stop, may not be used in an unrelated criminal proceeding.
The legislator who presented the bill, Rep. Victoria Morales (D), argues the bill is all about pretexts.
In Tuesday's debate, Morales said, "Pretexts are using a minor violation to stop a vehicle, not intending to site that driver for that minor violation but to use that to fish for other suspected activity for which the officer does not have reasonable suspicion of."
She continued, "LD 417 simply means law enforcement have to have some articulable suspicion of the suspected crime they want to stop the driver for."
The ACLU of Maine has come out in favor of the bill, saying pretextual stops are "where implicit or explicit racial bias comes into play."
The Department of Public Safety and the Maine Chiefs of Police Association have both come out against the bill.
A written statement from the Maine Chiefs of Police Association opposing the bill, submitted on behalf of Augusta Police Chief Jared Mills, said in part, "Why is it in the public interest that a law enforcement officer may stop a vehicle for only a motor vehicle offense only to be prohibited from taking further enforcement action on any other offense detected after the initial stop?"
Speaking to NEWS CENTER Maine, Chief Mills said it's not officers who will be hurt by this bill, it's the public.
"Our biggest concern at this point is it really takes away out the effectiveness of proactive policing," Chief Mills said.
He said it would further complicate an effective tool in police work. "We actually take a lot of drugs off the street with car stops. We solve a lot of crimes with car stops."
After passing initial votes in both the House and Senate, the bill now faces a final vote in each chamber.