August 7, 2024 - WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) reintroduced the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2024, the most comprehensive bill to reform law enforcement and strengthen police accountability in our country’s history.

Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)

The sweeping legislation was first introduced in 2020 in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is aimed at changing the culture of law enforcement departments by holding police accountable in court for egregious misconduct, increasing transparency through better data collection, and improving police practices and training. The late Representative Sheila Jackson Lee reintroduced companion legislation in the House earlier this year.  

“George Floyd, Sonya Massey, Breonna Taylor, and countless other victims of police brutality should all be alive today. Their murders are the product of a broken justice system that lacks accountability for the disproportionate use of force against Black and Brown Americans,” said Senator Padilla. “We must honor their lives by combating systemic biases and continuing to demand justice through commonsense reforms like eliminating chokeholds, restricting no-knock warrants, ending racial profiling, and limiting qualified immunity for police officers committing violent acts.”

“The recent tragic death of Sonya Massey, a 36 year-old Black woman who was shot and killed in her home by a police officer, is a stark reminder that the time for comprehensive and common sense policing reform is overdue. Her life was cut short due to a system that fails to hold officers accountable for egregious misconduct,” said Senator Booker. “I’ve spent the better part of four years working to advance The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and policing reforms that make communities safer, and this legislation contains ideas that will increase transparency and accountability within our nation’s policing system. We must advance legislation that holds law enforcement accountable for misconduct and ensures these tragedies never happen again. There is no law or policy or reform that will erase the decades of harm and loss communities of color have suffered, but this legislation is a chance to make meaningful changes that will improve police practices and make our nation safer, stronger, and more just.”

Specifically, the Justice in Policing Act would:

• Hold police accountable in our courts by:
  • Amending the mens rea requirement in 18 U.S.C. Section 242, the federal criminal statute to prosecute police misconduct, from “willfulness” to a “knowingly or recklessly” standard;
  • Reforming qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that, as currently interpreted, shields law enforcement officers from being held legally liable for when they violate an individual’s constitutional rights; and
  • Improving the use of pattern and practice investigations at the federal level by granting the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division subpoena power and incentivizing independent investigative structures for police involved deaths through grants.

• Improve transparency into policing by collecting better and more accurate data of police misconduct and use-of-force by:
  • Incentivizing police departments to report use of force information to the FBI Use of Force database, the National Decertification Index, and National Law Enforcement Accountability Database;
  • Incentivizing police departments to check misconduct records in the National Decertification Index and National Law Enforcement Accountability Database before hiring officers; and
  • Mandating state and local law enforcement agencies report use of force data, disaggregated by race, sex, disability, religion, age.

• Improve police training and practices by:
  • Ending racial and religious profiling;
  • Mandating training on racial bias and the duty to intervene;
  • Banning no-knock warrants in drug cases;
  • Banning chokeholds and carotid holds;
  • Changing the standard to evaluate whether law enforcement use of force was justified from whether the force was reasonable to whether the force was necessary;
  • Limiting the transfer of military-grade equipment to state and local law enforcement;
  • Requiring federal uniformed police officers to wear body cameras; and
  • Requiring state and local law enforcement to use existing federal funds to ensure the use of police body cameras.

• Establishing practices and programs to reduce negative police interactions and better use police resources through grants to:
  • Establish programs that hire, employ, train, and dispatch mental health and social service professionals to respond to police calls involving individuals having a mental illness or an intellectual or developmental disability, experiencing a mental health crisis, or under the influence of a legal or illegal substance;
  • Establish unarmed civilian government departments to enforce traffic violations; and
  • Establish local task forces to develop innovative law enforcement and non-law enforcement strategies to enhance just and equitable outcomes.

Senator Padilla is committed to reforming our law enforcement system and ending police brutality. Last Congress, he and Representative Ro Khanna (D-Calif.-17) introduced the PEACE Act, legislation to change the federal standard for the use of force by federal officers to require that force be used only when necessary to prevent imminent death or serious bodily injury. The bill was passed by the House as part of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in the 116th Congress. Padilla has also introduced legislation to improve accountability for federal law enforcement and allow individuals to sue officers and agencies in civil court for violations of their civil and constitutional rights. 

Full text of the bill is available here.
Source: Senator Alex Padilla