Warner, Kaine join fellow Senate group in introducing police reform bill
The Senate brought the
to the forefront Monday in what organizers said was the "first comprehensive legislative move toward ending police brutality and the culture of law enforcement departments."
In a joint statement, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) said they joined their peers "in an effort to better hold police accountable in court for misconduct, increase transparency and improve practices and training." The bill was revealed to the House of Representatives by Congressional Black Caucus Chair, Karen Bass (D-CA).
According to the Office of Mark Warner, the
would:
"
o Amending the mens rea requirement in 18 U.S.C. Section 242, the federal criminal statute to prosecute police misconduct, from “willfulness” to a “recklessness” standard;
o Reforming qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that as currently interpreted shields law enforcement officers from being held legally liable for violating an individual’s constitutional rights.
o 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 state attorneys general to conduct pattern and practice investigations;
o Incentivizing states to create independent investigative structures for police involved deaths through grants; and
o Creating best practices recommendations based on President Obama’s 21st Century Policing Task Force
•
o Creating a National Police Misconduct Registry to prevent problem-officers from changing jurisdictions to avoid accountability; and
o Mandating state and local law enforcement agencies report use of force data, disaggregated by race, sex, disability, religion, and age
o Ending racial and religious profiling;
o Mandating training on racial bias and the duty to intervene;
o Banning no-knock warrants in drug cases;
o Banning chokeholds and carotid holds;
o Changing the use of force standard for federal officers from reasonableness to only when necessary to prevent death or serious bodily injury;
o Limiting the transfer of military-grade equipment to state and local law enforcement;
o Requiring federal uniformed police officers to wear body cameras; and
o Requiring state and local law enforcement to use existing federal funds to ensure the use of police body camera
o Making it a federal crime to conspire to violate existing federal hate crimes laws
The
has the support of a coalition of civil rights organizations including: Demand Progress, Lawyers' Committee For Civil Rights Under Law, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Action Network, National African American Clergy Network, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP), Black Millennial Convention, and the National Urban League."
