Despite bipartisan support, police transparency bill facing veto in Pa.

A proposal struck down by Governor Tom Wolf last session is back in the legislature, and may very well pass again.

The measure aims to shield police officers from public scrutiny after they’ve been involved with shootings or other similar incidents. And though it has fairly bipartisan support, lawmakers are hard-pressed to figure out a way to get Wolf to sign it.House Bill 27 would keep local police departments from releasing names of officers involved in shootings for at least 30 days following an incident.

It saw strong opposition from the ACLU and governor, but passed both chambers last session.

This session, it again passed the House.

GOP Senator Charles McIlhinney, of Bucks County, said he reached out to Wolf to potentially amend the measure so he’d support it.

“They have not come up with any amendments or given me any language yet,” McIlhinney said. “So I indicated I was still planning to move it forward. This has been four months now since January, when it was introduced.”

The last time the proposal passed, it had enough votes to override a gubernatorial veto.

McIlhinney said that could happen again, but he doubts Democrats are dedicated enough to the issue to defy Wolf over it.

“I don’t know if you want to make it that issue that you’re going to override a veto on,” he said. “Any of the members, I think, from his party would say, look, I voted for it twice but at this point I’m not going to go throw it in the governor’s face.”