A bill to rewrite Alabama law on civil and criminal immunity for police officers, one of the priorities for Republican legislators and Gov. Kay Ivey, passed the Alabama House of Representatives today after three hours of debate.

More than a dozen Democratic lawmakers spoke in opposition to the bill, with some saying that police already have enough legal protection and they do not want additional cover for bad actions by cops.

Supporters of the “Back the Blue” legislation say it is needed to help recruit and retain law enforcement officers during a time when some Alabama city police departments, notably Birmingham and Montgomery, are understaffed.

The bill, HB202, is by Rep. Rex Reynolds, R-Huntsville, a former police chief for Huntsville.

Reynolds, who worked in law enforcement for 30 years, opened the debate by saying that recruiting and retention of police is at an all-time low. Reynolds said he remembers in the 1970s that Huntsville police would have 1,000 applicants for 35 or 40 jobs. He said the city is now lucky to get 75 qualified applicants.

Reynolds said it is harder to recruit and retain police partly because of the concerns they have about being accused of wrongdoing for making on-the-spot decisions that sometimes involve life and death.

“We recruit these men and women sometimes at the age of 21 years old,” Reynolds said. “We train them. And when we train them they have discretionary authority. And sometimes that involves the use of force. And sometimes that can turn to deadly use of force in a split second.

“HB202 will provide a sense of support from Alabama to these law enforcement officers when they make that decision.”

On the other hand, Reynolds said the bill also outlines when officers act recklessly or outside the scope of their duties.

Rep. Russell Bedsole, a Republican who is a major with the Shelby County sheriff’s department, said the bill is needed to update Alabama’s law on immunity and align it with U.S. Supreme Court rulings on officer immunity.

Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, said she supported police but not the bill.

“I respect the men and women in blue,” Givan said. “Every time I see one I say thank you.”

But Givan, an attorney, said she did not think police need another layer of immunity in the court system.

Rep. Ontario Tillman, D-Birmingham, also said he supports police and said most do their jobs well but said he does not want citizens who are harmed in an encounter with a bad cop to have undue barriers to seeking legal recourse.

Tillman said adding more immunity for police who commit wrongdoing on the job would erode public trust in law enforcement.

Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, said it is already rare for a police officer to be prosecuted for deadly use of force and said those cases happen only when the facts are extreme.

“What is the standard?” England said. “Is the standard that we can’t prosecute you at all? That’s what this bill is designed to do. You can call it expanded immunity if you want to.”

England said he understands that people need to support police.

“If we’re truly trying to back the blue, make it more difficult for people to get firearms,” England said. “That’s how you back the blue. If you want to back the blue, make it easier for them to get the resources to protect themselves.”

Reynolds said the expanded immunity in the bill was not intended to cover wrongdoing by police.

The bill says police are justified in any use of physical force against a person if the use of force is within the law enforcement officer’s discretionary authority and does not constitute excessive force.

The bill says police are not justified “for any use of physical force against a person if the use of force violates that person’s rights, under the Constitution of Alabama or the Constitution of the United States, to be free from excessive force.”

Under the bill, a police officer facing a criminal charge for excessive use of force would be entitled to a pre-trial hearing to determine whether the use of force, including deadly force, was justified or was unlawful. The hearing would take place before the criminal prosecution could proceed.

That is similar to a hearing already available to all citizens, including police, who are charged with a crime and claim they acted in self-defense under Alabama’s “stand your ground” law.

Rep. Rolanda Hollis, D-Birmingham, said she was concerned that immunity could provide cover for bad acts by police that happen because of racial profiling. Hollis, who is Black, said she has had family members pulled over and questioned just because they were driving a luxury car.

“We have to continue to worry about our boys and girls that look like me,” Hollis told Reynolds. “So that’s what my issue is. You’ve never been pulled over because of the car you’re driving or because of the color of your skin.”

The bill passed by a vote of 75-26. It moves to the Senate.