The Virginia legislature recently passed a bill that would create a new office of a police “auditor” who would have the power to investigate allegations against police officers and order binding disciplinary actions against them, up to and including termination. The auditor would be a civilian who reports directly to the Arlington County Board of Supervisors and would be a political appointee. The backers of the bill were in for an unpleasant surprise when it reached the Governor’s desk, however. Glenn Youngkin broke out his veto pen for the first time and sent it back to the legislature with his comments. This is setting up a fight between Democrats in the legislature and the new governor. (Washington Examiner)

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, signed his first veto Tuesday on a bill that would have created a politically appointed independent policing auditor hired directly by the Arlington County Board of Supervisors.

H.B. 670, which reached Youngkin’s desk after passing the Virginia House of Delegates by a vote of 65-35 and the state Senate by a vote of 21-19, allowed the politically appointed auditor to take binding disciplinary actions, including termination.

“The best way to ensure that any bad actors within law enforcement are held accountable is to stand up for law enforcement, not tear them down or subject them to politically-motivated inquiries,” Youngkin said in a statement Tuesday morning.

Youngkin’s issues with the bill were well explained and should seem rather obvious to anyone outside of the “abolish the police” movement. First of all, there are no professional qualifications listed for the position. Someone with absolutely no experience or knowledge of how policing is actually done could be put in the position with likely disastrous results. Even worse, someone with entrenched political motivations could appoint someone from the ranks of the “defund the police” crowd who could then begin launching fishing expeditions with the goal of removing cops just for the sake of doing it.

That makes it doubly troubling when the position is established as a politically appointed office. It doesn’t necessarily have to be an elected position (which might arguably produce even worse results in some cases), but it should at least require a review and vote by the legislature. I’m not saying there is no room for additional oversight of the police, but it needs to be done in a constructive fashion rather than a destructive one.

At this point, the House of Delegates can either rewrite the bill to address the Governor’s concerns or they can attempt to override his veto. The latter option may prove impossible. In order to override the Governor, the motion must have the support of 2/3 of the members in both chambers. The bill only passed in the state senate by two votes, 21-19. They would need 27 to override. They didn’t even manage a full two-thirds supermajority in the House, though they were close.

If the legislature really wants to see this office created, it sounds like they’re going to be forced to work with Youngkin rather than against him. He’s offered them a template showing how they might be able to fix the bill and have it passed. It remains to be seen if the Democrats in the legislature are in the mood for a compromise in the interest of getting something done.