Recent state action

SF 311 prohibits a city with a civil service commission from establishing a board for citizen review of officer conduct. Iowa's 99 counties have no sheriff oversight bodies; under the law no covered city can create one either.

HB 601 barred local governments from creating civilian oversight agencies that investigate complaints of law-enforcement misconduct, while permitting sheriffs and police chiefs to establish their own oversight boards. At least 15 pre-existing local boards dissolved or went dormant within six months.

HB 0764 dissolved Nashville's Community Oversight Board and Memphis's Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board, replacing them with police advisory and review committees that have no investigatory power. It was enacted three months after the release of the Tyre Nichols body-camera footage.

HB 2462 requires that any person serving on a civilian review board that reviews peace-officer conduct first hold current or former Arizona peace-officer certification, or complete a police academy or 80 hours of certified training. The requirement conditions oversight-board membership on law-enforcement training or credentials.

The Maryland Police Accountability Act of 2021 made Maryland the only state to require a civilian Police Accountability Board in every county and Baltimore City. The statutory definition of "law enforcement agency" includes sheriff's offices.

SB 26 enacted a Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights, setting procedural protections for officers under investigation and closing the resulting misconduct-investigation records from public disclosure except by court order or consent. In 2022 a St. Louis Circuit Court cited § 590.502 in enjoining the city's new Division of Civilian Oversight from taking over police misconduct investigations.

SB 621 shields voter-approved local community oversight boards from challenge under state collective-bargaining law: charter or ordinance provisions establishing a board with authority over law-enforcement discipline remain in effect if the measure was referred to voters on or after July 1, 2020 and approved by a majority. It followed a union challenge to Portland's voter-approved oversight board.

SB 5051 created the Office of Independent Investigations within the Governor's Office, with jurisdiction over deadly-force incidents by officers of any Washington law-enforcement agency, including county sheriffs and deputies. Incidents on or after July 1, 2022 must be investigated independently of the involved agency. The law also expanded state authority to revoke officer certification.

AB 1185 permits any county's Board of Supervisors to establish a civilian oversight body for its sheriff's office, by board action or by a vote of county residents. Seven counties have done so.

The Act Concerning Police Accountability authorized any Connecticut municipality to establish a civilian police review board by ordinance and to grant it subpoena power. The act is permissive — it does not require boards — and also created an Office of the Inspector General to investigate uses of deadly force.

Executive Order 203 required every New York locality with a police agency — including counties whose primary law enforcement is the sheriff's office — to adopt a police reform plan by April 1, 2021 or risk losing state funding. The state separately created an Office of Special Investigation (Exec. Law § 70-b) authorized to investigate deaths caused by police or peace officers, including sheriff's deputies.

HB 5055 authorized localities to create law-enforcement civilian oversight bodies with subpoena power and disciplinary authority, but its definition of "law-enforcement officer" excludes sheriffs and deputy sheriffs from that oversight.