Rabb responds to hiring, resignation of police officer who shot, killed Tamir Rice

Rep. Christopher M. Rabb    July 7, 2022 | 4:05 PM

HARRISBURG, July 7 – Timothy Loehmann, the officer who killed Tamir Rice, was hired yesterday by the Tioga Township Police Department to be their lone officer. State Rep. Chris Rabb, D-Phila., said that while Loehmann has now resigned, hiring him in the first place was wholly unacceptable.

Rabb authored legislation to establish a police misconduct database, which was incorporated into Act 57 and signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf in 2020.  

“The statewide database was created to weed out dangerous officers and to keep our communities safer,” Rabb said. “While I’m glad Loehmann resigned due to mounting public pressure, had my legislation passed intact back in 2020, the public would have been automatically informed about his employment application before he was hired.”

Rabb has collaborated with municipalities and other stakeholders since the enactment of Act 57 of 2020 to close dangerous transparency loopholes that have made this law-enforcement database far less effective than originally conceived in his 2018 legislation.

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