Rep. Charles "Bud" M. Freel

This Concurrent Resolution recognizes March 26, 2022, as “Epilepsy Awareness Day” and requests that the Governor issue a proclamation declaring the same. The Resolution encourages the State agencies and all Delawareans to undertake suitable efforts to increase epilepsy awareness throughout the State of Delaware.

Currently, Delaware is in the minority of states that bar public access to police misconduct records, and is the only state in the country with a specific confidentiality clause in its Law-Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights (“LEOBOR”). Under Delaware's LEOBOR (Chapter 92 of Title 11 of the Delaware Code) police misconduct records are secret and not accessible to the media or the public. This information is tremendously important. Law-enforcement officers are pillars of their community and often the most significant witnesses in criminal trials, where defendants can sometimes face the rest of their lives in prison. This Act would ensure that the public will have access to all serious and substantiated records of law-enforcement misconduct making our criminal justice system fairer and improving trust within our community. Public access, through Delaware’s Freedom of Information Act (Chapter 100 of Title 29 of the Delaware Code), will increase transparency and allow for more meaningful oversight. This Act adds affirmative language to LEOBOR that serious and substantiated law-enforcement disciplinary records are public records. And, this Act makes clear that the only materials that are released relate to disciplinary issues, and do not include personal information. Additionally, this Act makes changes to LEOBOR to increase transparency by enabling the creation and operation of effective community review boards at the State, county, and municipal level. These boards are critical to increasing public trust in the criminal justice system. Finally, this Act makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Substitute amends Senate Bill No. 3 by doing the following: (1) Prohibiting the Department of Safety and Homeland Security (“Department”) from retaining a record, data, information, or a report related to the transfer of a handgun for longer than 2 years, except in furtherance of an open criminal investigation or during the course of a criminal prosecution. (2) Redrafting § 1448D(e) of Title 11 to cite to the grounds on which a person is a person prohibited under § 1448 of Title 11, rather than repeating them in § 1448D(e) of Title 11 and potentially create unintentional differences. (3) Making clear that a decision by the Justice of the Peace Court on the denial or revocation of a handgun qualified purchaser card by the Department may be appealed to the Superior Court for a hearing de novo. (4) Delaying the implementation of the requirement to obtain a handgun qualified purchaser card until the Department is ready to implement § 1448D of Title 11 or 18 months from the date of enactment, whichever comes first. Like Senate Bill No. 3, this Substitute does all of the following: (1) Creates an application process to obtain a handgun qualified purchaser card to authorize the purchase of a handgun. While an applicant will incur costs related to fingerprinting and required training, a fee will not be charged to obtain the permit. (2) Requires licensed importers, manufacturers, or dealers, as well as unlicensed persons, to require an individual to present the individual's handgun qualified purchaser card before selling or transferring a firearm to an individual. (3) Requires that an applicant complete a firearms training course within 5 years before the date of application, similar to what is required by Delaware’s concealed carry permit law. An individual licensed to carry a concealed deadly weapon is exempt from this requirement as they must already complete a firearms training course to be licensed. (4) Sends to law-enforcement information that is already collected at the time of sale and required under federal law to be made available to law-enforcement. This change assists law-enforcement in the criminal investigations they already conduct. (5) Makes clear that § 904A of Title 24 is not intended to prohibit law-enforcement officials from keeping records of sales and transfers of firearms for their use during criminal investigations or prosecutions. (6) Makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.