InDepthNH.org (https://indepthnh.org/category/dishonest-police/page/5/)
Laurie List’s Legacy: They are called Exculpatory Evidence Schedules now, but InDepthNH.org continues its investigative reporting on the secret list that contains the names of law enforcement officers in New Hampshire who have a history of dishonesty, excessive force or mental instability. Catch up on our reporting here.
In an early meeting, not live-streamed for the public, the initial focus was one where the new state entity would be located and operated – as part of the police administrative structure (within Police Standards and Training Council) (PSTC) or more independent of the police themselves.
With a key member of the committee unable to attend Thursday’s meeting, the group formulating recommendations to deal with police misconduct decided to hold off on substantive discussion of some draft proposals, but by the end of the half-hour session, Chair Matthew Broadhead declared that they had “slipped into a productive meeting.”
CONCORD — The commission charged with making recommendations for handling police misconduct complaints held preliminary discussions on Thursday afternoon, focusing on who should hold the authority, where a new state agency would reside, and what actually constitutes misconduct.
The lawsuit seeking the unredacted Laurie List of dishonest police will continue even though five of the newspapers and ACLU-NH that originally sued the attorney general to get the list have withdrawn saying it is moot now that HB 471 has been signed into law.
Shortly after Gov. Chris Sununu’s signing of House Bill 471 into law on Wednesday, most of the litigants in a public records lawsuit against the state Department of Justice filed a Notice of Voluntary Nonsuit Without Prejudice, effectively withdrawing from the case that sought to bring daylight to the confidential list of dishonest police known as the Laurie List.
A thick blue line of police officers surrounded Gov. Chris Sununu Wednesday as he signed into law three bills which together, he says, herald a new day in police accountability throughout the state.
Since the Attorney General’s Office began maintaining the Laurie list of dishonest police now known as the Exculpatory Evidence Schedule in March of 2017, a total of 14 redacted names have been confidentially removed, according to Senior Assistant Attorney General Geoffrey Ward.
The House passed the amended version of House Bill 471 Thursday that promises to make public the Laurie List of dishonest police with some caveats and Gov. Chris Sununu’s spokesman said the governor will sign it into law.
Eliminating qualified immunity for public employees from civil lawsuits resurfaced as part of an amendment to a police reform bill Tuesday, but it got nowhere after a public hearing.