Senate Republicans next week will begin considering a police reform measure that would essentially ban chokeholds and create a national reporting database to track the use of force and questionable tactics employed by police officers.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Wednesday that he has rearranged the schedule to speed up consideration of the reform measure, which comes in response to a string of deaths of black people in police custody that has prompted widespread civil unrest.
The measure would ban federal law enforcement from using chokeholds unless an officer is facing lethal force, and it would pull federal funding from local police departments that do not institute a chokehold ban.
The measure would provide federal grants to enable police departments to purchase body cameras and institute penalties for officers who don’t turn the cameras on.
The legislation is authored by Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican and African American who has been vocal about his own experiences with racial bias in policing.
Scott has been pulled over for questionable reasons while driving and has been stopped in the Capitol by officers who do not realize he is a senator.
The problem with racial bias in policing continues, Scott said Wednesday.
“It’s why it’s so important for us to say that we hear you, we’re listening to your concerns,” Scott said.
House Democrats unveiled a police reform measure earlier this month, and Senate Democrats have introduced a companion version in the Senate. Both parties began crafting the legislation following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis after a white police officer knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
“The George Floyd incident certainly accelerated this conversation, and we find ourselves at a place with a package that I think speaks to the families that I spoke with yesterday, who lost loved ones,” Scott said. “We hear you. I think this package speaks very clearly to the young person who’s concerned when stopped by law enforcement officers. We see you.”
Republicans need cooperation from Senate Democrats, whose own measure includes many similar provisions that Scott said amounts to “an overlap of 70% or 75%” in the two proposals.
Without Democratic cooperation, the GOP bill is likely to face a filibuster that will prevent the Senate from taking up the bill.
There are some major differences.
The Democratic bill includes a provision that removes immunity for police officers.
Democrats want to eliminate the qualified immunity that protects police officers so that they would be held accountable for deaths that occur by “knowing or reckless disregard” for a person’s safety.
President Trump and Republicans are opposed to it.
The House bill would also require independent investigations of police use of force incidents and would essentially end the use of no-knock warrants by stripping federal funding from police departments that use the tactic.
No-knocks allow police to enter dwellings without warning, and the tactic has resulted in deadly shootings of unsuspecting residents.
In March, Louisville, Kentucky, police shot and killed an unarmed Breonna Taylor in her apartment while executing a no-knock warrant in the middle of the night.
Scott said rather than ban the tactic, the federal government should first collect data on how it is used.
The Senate bill calls for data collection on the use of no-knock warrants, and the provision is named after Taylor, who was black and 26 years old.
“For us to start a conversation with banning no-knocks, it doesn’t sound like a solid position based on any data, because we don’t have that data,” Scott said.
Scott said the Senate bill increases data collection on police tactics and adds deescalation training to reduce use of force incidents and increase police intervention when other officers are acting improperly.
The Senate bill would also create a commission on the status of black men and boys that would examine education, civil rights, healthcare, employment, and housing.
The commission would “conduct a systematic study of the conditions affecting Black men and boys, including homicide rates, arrest and incarceration rates, poverty, violence, fatherhood, mentorship, drug abuse, death rates, disparate income and wealth levels, school performance in all grade levels including post-secondary education and college, and health issues.”
Scott said he wanted the Senate to focus on fixing the problems rather than defining police or the nation as racist.
“I don’t worry about the definitions that people want to use. It’s good for headlines, but it’s really bad for policy,” Scott said. “We’re gonna focus on getting something done.”
