[George Floyd Justice In Policing Act]
Rep. Nadler: “The House has done its job today but that is not the end of the story. The Senate must take up this legislation and send it to the President’s desk without delay. This is not the time for half measures…This is not the time for fake reform.”
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Last night the House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, by a bipartisan vote of 236 to 181.
The legislation is the first-ever bold, comprehensive approach to hold police accountable, change the culture of law enforcement, empower our communities, and build trust between law enforcement and our communities by addressing systemic racism and bias to help save lives. Congressional Black Caucus Chair Karen Bass (D-CA), Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA), and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) introduced the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020 on June 8, 2020. The legislation has 231 cosponsors in the House and 36 cosponsors in the Senate.
Under the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, for the first time ever federal law would:
1) ban chokeholds; 2) end racial and religious profiling; 3) eliminate qualified immunity for law enforcement; 4) establish national standard for the operation of police departments; 5) mandate data collection on police encounters; 6) reprogram existing funds to invest in transformative community-based policing programs; and 7) streamline federal law to prosecute excessive force and establish independent prosecutors for police investigations.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler:
“The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act will reimagine policing for the 21st Century and will hold officers who commit misconduct accountable for their actions. I thank Chair Karen Bass for all of her work in assembling the historic legislation. The House has done its job today but that is not the end of the story. The Senate must take up this legislation and send it to the President’s desk without delay. This is not the time for half measures. This is not the time for further study. This is not the time for fake reform. If our Republican colleagues truly want to pass bold comprehensive legislation that will change the culture of policing and hold officers accountable, we welcome them to the table. But we will not accept anything less.”
Congressional Black Caucus Chair Karen Bass:
“Today’s bipartisan passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in the House is not just a victory for the Congressional Black Caucus and its founding members who first championed legislation to address the issue of police brutality. This is a victory for our entire country. For far too long, Black Americans have endured systemic racism and discrimination—especially from police. Congress may have written this bill, but the people own it. Now that this historic bill has passed the House, we call upon our colleagues in the Senate to commit to a good faith negotiation on the provisions put forward by the House in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.”
The George Floyd 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.
