COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina has a new law aimed at raising minimum standards and boosting accountability in Law enforcement.
It comes two years after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked protests and calls for police reform across the country.
“We're really just trying to get to the point where we can get the law enforcement profession more professional and that’s what we're trying to do with this legislation," said President of the South Carolina Sheriff's Association Jarrod Bruder.
Bruder explained that while there are minimum standards for law enforcement officers, there aren't any for law enforcement agencies, which this law changes.
The law bans putting an untrained officer on duty alone and expands on what qualifies as police misconduct and bans chokeholds across the state outside of circumstances in which the use of deadly force would be allowed.
For example, the law states officers are guilty of misconduct if they willfully fail to intervene when they see a colleague physically abusing someone in custody or if they intentionally fail to report abuse.
It also tasks the Law Enforcement Training Council with writing the minimum standards agencies must follow and threatens penalties for agencies that don't follow the rules.
Bruder tells News 19 these changes will have a big impact on smaller agencies. According to Bruder, nearly half of South Carolina's agencies consist of 10 officers or less.
“A lot of them are struggling to even survive, to have the right equipment, to have bulletproof vest to have those types of things," said Bruder. "And policies and procedures for many are a luxury and that shouldn’t be in 2022."
South Carolina NAACP president Brenda Murphy said the law is a step in the right direction.
"I was glad to see that there's going to be some training of new officers and they will be precepted by experience, officers and I think that will be a positive thing for the police," said Murphy.
Murphy said she would like to see the legislation go further to address interactions with police.
"I'm just concerned about those matters, the management of situations where maybe the situation does not have to escalate in the manner that it does sometimes and then we ended up with a very bad situation in terms of how someone is treated," said Murphy.
Most of the law went into effect under McMaster's signature. However, the Law Enforcement Training Council's establishment of standards goes into effect in 2023.
“Hopefully we’ll get to the point when these law enforcement agencies aren't just cutting and pasting from agencies that already have policies, but they’re having realistic in depth conversations in their own agencies about how can we most effectively put these policies into place," said Bruder.