New Congressional Police Reform Bill. Too limited or worth supporting? Also, a more far-reaching proposal by https://8cantwait.org/
Sponsors Nadler, Booker, Harris seeking co-sponsors. Call Representatives to urge them to co-sponsor if you support the bill. Also consider promoting the https://8cantwait.org/ proposal at the local level. Both are less dramatic than the ensuing defunding of the Minneapolis Police Dept.
The Justice in Policing Act of 2020:
- Prohibits federal, state, and local law enforcement from racial, religious and discriminatory profiling, and mandates training on racial, religious, and discriminatory profiling for all law enforcement.
- Bans chokeholds, carotid holds and no-knock warrants at the federal level and limits the transfer of military-grade equipment to state and local law enforcement.
- Mandates the use of dashboard cameras and body cameras for federal offices and requires state and local law enforcement to use existing federal funds to ensure the use of police body cameras.
- Establishes a National Police Misconduct Registry to prevent problematic officers who are fired or leave on agency from moving to another jurisdiction without any accountability.
- Amends federal criminal statute from “willfulness” to a “recklessness” standard to successfully identify and prosecute police misconduct.
- Reforms qualified immunity so that individuals are not barred from recovering damages when police violate their constitutional rights.
- Establishes public safety innovation grants for community-based organizations to create local commissions and task forces to help communities to re-imagine and develop concrete, just and equitable public safety approaches.
- Creates law enforcement development and training programs to develop best practices and requires the creation of law enforcement accreditation standard recommendations based on President Obama’s Taskforce on 21st Century policing.
- Requires state and local law enforcement agencies to report use of force data, disaggregated by race, sex, disability, religion, age.
- Improves the use of pattern and practice investigations at the federal level by granting the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division subpoena power and creates a grant program for state attorneys general to develop authority to conduct independent investigations into problematic police departments.
- Establishes a Department of Justice task force to coordinate the investigation, prosecution and enforcement efforts of federal, state and local governments in cases related to law enforcement misconduct.
A group of civil rights leaders issued a statement on Monday noting their support of the bill. A few quotes from their statement:
- “We support Congress taking an important step toward police accountability by introducing the Justice in Policing Act. In the aftermath of the recent police killings of Black people, we sent Congress a strong police accountability framework that is reflected in this legislation.”
- “Many provisions in the bill reflect the insights of national and local civil rights organizations that have worked for years on these issues.”
The following leaders signed the statement:
- Melanie L. Campbell, president and CEO, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Convener, Black Women’s Roundtable
- Kristen Clarke, president and executive director, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
- Vanita Gupta, president and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
- Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
- Derrick Johnson, president and CEO, NAACP
- Marc H. Morial, president and CEO, National Urban League
- Reverend Al Sharpton, president and founder, National Action Network