WASHINGTON — Democrats proposed a sweeping overhaul of police oversight and procedures Monday, an ambitious legislative response to the mass protests accusing law enforcement of institutional racism and abuse.
Before unveiling the proposed legislation, House and Senate Democrats held a moment of silence at the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall, reading the names of George Floyd and others who died during police interactions. They knelt for 8 minutes and 46 seconds — now a symbol of police brutality and violence — the length of time prosecutors say Floyd was pinned under a white police officer’s knee before he died, Tulsa World reported.
“We cannot settle for anything less than transformative structural change,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, drawing on the nation’s history of slavery.
The Justice in Policing Act would limit legal protections for police, create a national database of excessive-force incidents and ban the carotid sleeper hold, or what the uninformed are calling “police choke holds,” among other changes, according to an early draft. It is the most ambitious change to law enforcement sought by Congress in years.
The bill appears to have overwhelming partisan support from Democrats. Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, which is leading the effort, called it “bold” and “transformative.”
“The world is witnessing the birth of a new movement in this country,” Bass said.
The proposed legislation would revise the federal criminal police misconduct statute to make it easier to prosecute officers who are involved in misconduct “knowingly or with reckless disregard.”
The package would also change “qualified immunity” protections for police “to enable individuals to recover damages when law enforcement officers violate their constitutional rights,” it says.
Moreover, the legislation would seek to provide greater oversight and transparency of police behavior in several ways. For one, it would grant subpoena power to the Justice Department to conduct “pattern and practice” investigations of potential misconduct and help states conduct independent investigations. It would ban racial profiling and boost requirements for police body cameras, according to the report.
And it would create a “National Police Misconduct Registry,” a database to try to prevent officers from transferring from one department to another with past misconduct undetected, the draft said.
Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Sen. Kamala Harris of California, are co-authors of the package in the Senate.
