Dozens of new KY laws take effect June 29. One makes it easier to stop bad cops.

“No one hates a bad cop more than a good cop,” says Ryan Straw, chaplain of the Kentucky Fraternal Order of Police.

Straw, who also is governmental affairs director of the police organization, is keenly aware of the increasing public mistrust of police officers in the wake of the police-involved deaths of Breonna Taylor in Louisville and George Floyd in Minneapolis.

But most police, he said, are honest, hard-working people who want to protect others. “It’s those few that make life terrible for all.”

Straw is hopeful that a new state law, one of several that take effect on June 29, will make it easier to get rid of bad cops.

On March 22, Gov. Andy Beshear signed Senate Bill 80 into law designed to give the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council at Eastern Kentucky University, the governing body that oversees the certification of more than 8,400 police officers in the state, more authority to take away their license for bad behavior.

“It’s one of the most important pieces of legislation to try to achieve integrity for our police,” said Shawn Butler, executive director of the Kentucky Association of Chiefs of Police and former police chief of Independence in Northern Kentucky

“It did not get that much media attention in this year’s state legislature,” Butler said. “The media mostly focused on the use of no-knock warrants by police but this new law is quite important.”

No state legislator this year voted against SB 80. It basically increases the number of ways police officers could lose their certification.

Violations that can lead to decertification include unjustified use of excessive or deadly force, interference of the fair administration of justice, and engagement in a sexual relationship with a victim, witness, defendant or informant in a criminal investigation.

Under the new law, an officer must intervene when it is safe and practical to do so when another officer is using unlawful and unjustified excessive or deadly force.

Also, a police officer could face decertification after being convicted of certain misdemeanors. Those include crimes involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, physical violence, sexual abuse, or crimes against a minor or household member.

The new law also allows police agencies to offer conditional employment, pending an investigation into the applicant’s certification status and former employment conduct.

Allowing due process for the officers was an important part of the negotiations in getting the new law, said the FOP’S Straw.

It typically takes the state council about six months to consider taking away an officer’s license, said the KLEC’s Moberly.

Over the last 10 years, he said, the council has taken up 16 to 24 decertification cases a year, he said. Last year, 20 cases were submitted. “Of those 20, 13 are still in the process and six were decertified,” said Moberly.

He said the new law applies to all certified police officers in the state except those who are elected — sheriffs and constables.

“This is about accountability and integrity,” said Moberly.

Various law-enforcement officials in the state and the Kentucky League of Cities worked more than a year on the new law, said Butler.

“It is designed to protect the good police officers and the public,” said Jerry Wagner, executive director of the Kentucky Sheriffs’ Association. “It is designed to put the bad police officers on notice.”

He noted that the new law also requires the KLEC to provide information on an officer’s certification status to an out-of-state law enforcement agency.

“Before this law, loopholes existed, making it easy for delinquent officers to circumvent the system,” he said.

The ACLU of Kentucky called SB 80 “one small piece of the puzzle in reimagining the role of police in public safety and holding law enforcement accountable to the people they are sworn to protect and serve.”

Other new state laws

The Kentucky Constitution specifies that new laws take effect 90 days after the adjournment of the legislature unless they have a special effective date, are general appropriations measures, or include an emergency clause that makes them effective immediately upon becoming law.

Kentucky’s 2021 General Assembly ended March 30, making June 29 the effective date for most bills.

Here are some of the new laws, according to the Legislative Research Commission:

Adoption. House Bill 210 will ensure that employers offer parents adopting a child under the age of 10 the same amount of time off as birth parents.

Asthma. Senate Bill 127 encourages schools to keep bronchodilator rescue inhalers in at least two locations and will require schools with inhalers to have policies regarding their use.

Child and new mother fatalities. House Bill 212 will require data in an annual state report on fatalities among children and new mothers to include information on demographics, race, income and geography associated with the fatalities.

Child protection. House Bill 254 will raise the penalty for possession or viewing of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor under the age of 12 years to a Class C felony, subject up to 10 years in prison.

It will also raise the penalty for the distribution of matter portraying a sexual performance of a minor under the age of 12 years to a Class C felony and a Class B felony, subject up to 20 years in prison, for each subsequent offense.

Child support. House Bill 402 will revise child support laws to increase the amount considered flagrant nonsupport from $1,000 to $2,500.

Education. House Bill 563 will give families more options when deciding where to send their children to school and will assist families with the cost of educational expenses.

The Council for Better Education is challenging in Franklin Circuit Court part of this new law creating state tax credits for donors to groups that can help families living in the state’s most populous counties pay for private school tuition.

Elections. House Bill 574 will make permanent some of the election procedures implemented last year to accommodate voting during the pandemic. The measure will offer Kentuckians three days — including a Saturday — leading up to an election day for early, in-person voting.

It will allow county clerks to continue to offer ballot drop boxes for those who do not wish to send their ballots back by mail. It will also allow counties to offer voting centers where any registered voter in the county could vote.

Inmate care. Senate Bill 84 will ban jails, penitentiaries, local and state correctional facilities, residential centers and reentry centers from placing inmates who are pregnant or within the immediate postpartum period in restrictive housing, administrative segregation, or solitary confinement.

It will grant an inmate who gives birth 72 hours with a newborn before returning to the correctional facility and will offer six weeks of postpartum care. It also mandates that incarcerated pregnant women have access to social workers and any community-based programs to facilitate the placement and possible reunification of their child.

Late fees. House Bill 272 will allow water districts to impose a 10 percent late fee and cut off service for nonpayment of bills. Customers who receive financial assistance for their bills are exempt.

Newborn safety. House Bill 155 will allow the use of a “newborn safety device” when a newborn is being anonymously surrendered by a parent at a participating staffed police station, fire station, or hospital.

The device allows a parent surrendering an infant to do so safely using a receptacle that triggers an alarm once a newborn is placed inside so that medical care providers can immediately respond and provide care to the child.

Public records. House Bill 312 will revise the states Open Records Act. It will limit the ability of people who do not live, work or conduct business in Kentucky to obtain records through open records laws. These restrictions do not apply to out-of-state journalists. The legislation specifies that open records requests can be made via email.

Sexual abuse. Senate Bill 52 will amend third-degree rape, third-degree sodomy and second-degree sexual abuse statutes so law enforcement officers could be charged with those crimes if they engage in sexual acts with a person under investigation, in custody or under arrest.

Theft. House Bill 126 will increase the threshold of felony theft from $500 to $1,000. It will also allow law enforcement to charge members of organized shoplifting rings with a felony if a member steals a total of $1,000 worth of merchandise over 90 days.

U.S. Senators. Senate Bill 228 will change the way vacancies are filled for a U.S. senator from Kentucky. The bill will require the governor to select a replacement from a list of three nominees selected by the same political party of the departing senator.