VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Virginia lawmakers are debating whether to have a state agency create standards for police interrogations.
The issue came to light in 2022 when then Attorney General Mark Herring revealed Virginia Beach Police officers had used fake documents five times during interrogations.
At the time, News 3 uncovered a document meant to look like a report from the Department of Forensic Science, which said DNA evidence linked a man to a crime scene, but it was fake.
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Police Chief Paul Neudigate said the officers crossed the line and banned them from using fake documents.
"Our gut reaction was we went too far," he said in an interview with News 3 in January 2022.
Since then, Del. Jackie Glass (D-Norfolk) has been pushing for reforms in police interrogations.
Her efforts to ban the use of fake documents and to prevent officers from lying to minors during interrogations did not advance in the last two years.
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This year, she's introduced HB250 instructing the Department of Criminal Justice Services to establish policies that set standards for police interrogations.
The bill was amended to make it optional for departments to follow.
"We can't legislate culture, but we're saying, based off this bill, let's just establish what's an acceptable culture and let departments make their decisions from there," Glass said during a legislative hearing last week.
The bill is working its way through the General Assembly, but is receiving some push back.
"We're always supportive of good training and policy programs for law enforcement," said Dana Schrad, the executive director of the Virginia Chiefs of Police Association. "We're not real sure that this does exactly what we would like to see. It seems to be very restrictive on interrogation practices."
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Police officers are allowed to use deception, but the question the bill tries to answer is where do you draw the line?
"What we are saying is acceptable or not acceptable?" said Glass.
Schrad says existing policies may already address these concerns and thinks the bill should be carried over until next year to order to review its impact.
"We're concerned about the timetable on trying to get this done and whether it will interfere with our current standards, policies, and practices," said Schrad.
