Dear Neighbor,

Now is the moment to tackle systemic racism with renewed commitment.  As a first step, the Justice in Policing Act of 2020 was released this week in Congress.  The Act is ambitious, civil rights-focused legislation crafted by the Congressional Black Caucus and the House Judiciary Committee and I am proud to be an original cosponsor.  We aim to curb persistent, unchecked bias in policing, and require accountability and a change in culture with a new vision for policing in America.

The Justice in Policing Act of 2020 will:

• 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 “recklessness” standard;
  • Reform qualified immunity so that individuals are not entirely barred from recovering damages when police violate their constitutional rights;
  • Improve 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;
  • Incentivize states to create independent investigative structures for police involved deaths through grants; and
  • Create best practices recommendations based on the Obama 21^st Century Policing Task force.
• Improve transparency into policing by collecting better and more accurate data of police misconduct and use-of-force by:  
  • Creating a National Police Misconduct Registry to prevent problem-officers from changing jurisdictions to avoid accountability; and
  • Mandate 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.
• Make lynching a federal crime by:
  • Making it a federal crime to conspire to violate existing federal hate crimes laws.

In addition to the Justice in Policing Act, I also am cosponsoring the following law enforcement reform bills: 

1. H.R. 125, Police Training and Independent Review Act: authorizes the Attorney General to establish a grant to States providing sensitivity training for law enforcement officers. 
2. H.R. 4339, End Racial Profiling Act: prohibits federal, state and local law enforcement from targeting a person based on actual or perceived race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, gender identify or sexual orientation.
3. H.Res. 988, Condemning all acts of police brutality, racial profiling and the use of excessive and militarized force throughout the country.
4. H.R. 1893, Next Step Act: reforms sentencing, prisons, re-entry of prisoners and law enforcement practices.
5. H.R. 4408, Eric Garner Excessive Use of Force Prevention Act: forbids individuals under law, statue, ordinance, regulation or custom to the use of chokeholds to persons prescribed for the punishment of citizens.
6. H.R. 5777, Police Accountability Act: authorizes the Department of Justice to investigate wrongdoing by police by making it a federal crime for police officers to commit murder and manslaughter.
7. H.R. 5779, Grand Jury Reform Act: requires a special prosecutor to investigate cases where law enforcement officers have killed an individual in the line of duty.
8. H.R. 5778, Cooling Off Period Elimination Act: the Attorney General determines any State or local law enforcement agency ineligible to receive any Federal funds pursuant to a Department of Justice law enforcement during a cooling-off period.
9. H.R. 1714, Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act: ensures protesters in our streets aren’t subjected to war zone conditions by ending the transfers of certain aggressive military equipment to local law enforcement.
10. H.R. 5371, Local Task Forces on 21^st Century Policing Act: grants the Department of Justice to setup a task force on policing in local communities.
11. H.R. 3364, Federal Police Camera Accountability Act: requires federal law enforcement officers in uniform to wear body cameras and for federal law enforcement agencies to install video cameras in patrol cars.
12. H.R. 2927, Preventing Tragedies Between Police and Communities Act: requires States and localities receiving grants under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program to require law enforcement officers to undergo training on and thereafter employ de-escalation techniques to assist in reducing the need for the use of force by officers.  
13. H.R. 120, Police CAMERA Act: authorizes the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance to make grants to states, local governments and Indian tribes to purchase or lease body-work cameras for use by law enforcement officers.
14. H.R. 1787, Corey Jones Act: prohibits the Community Oriented Policing Services grant funding to local police departments that do not ban plain-clothes officers from engaging in routine traffic stops in unmarked vehicles.
15. H.R. 4359, Police Exercising Absolute Care with Everyone Act: prohibits Federal law enforcement officers from using deadly force or less lethal force unless such force is necessary.
16. H.R. 1574, Closing the Law Enforcement Consent Loophole Act: makes it a criminal offense for a federal law enforcement officer, federal agents, probation officers, judges and prosecutors to engage in a sexual act with anyone in his or her custody or while exercising their authority under color of law, regardless of consent.