Kildee Supports Landmark Police Reform Legislation

WASHINGTON—Congressman Dan Kildee (MI-05), Chief Deputy Whip of the House Democratic Caucus, today applauded the U.S. House of Representatives for passing theGeorge Floyd Justice in Policing Act. This legislation represents a bold, comprehensive approach to hold police accountable, end racial profiling, change the culture of law enforcement and build trust between law enforcement and our communities.

"With this legislation, I am proud that the U.S. House of Representatives is acting to address police brutality, hold bad police officers accountable and call for greater transparency in law enforcement. Discriminatory and excessivepolicing, especially of communities of color, is a systemic problem that requires a comprehensive solution by elected officials. It is my hope that a few courageous Senators will join with Democrats in the Senate to pass this important legislation and send it to the president's desk."

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act:

• 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 one 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.

Last year, Congressman Kildee cosponsored and voted for theJustice in Policing Act of 2020, which passed the House with bipartisan support but was not taken up by the then Republican controlled U.S. Senate.

The Justice in Policing Act has the support of a broad 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.

More information on the bill can be foundhere.