Senators Reverend Warnock, Booker Reintroduce Law Enforcement Reform, Police Accountability Legislation

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2024 is the most comprehensive bill to reform law enforcement and strengthen police accountability in the country’s history

As a pastor who has ministered to law enforcement and their families, Senator Reverend Warnock believes accountability is critical to building trust between law enforcement and communities

Senator Reverend Warnock: “This legislation, when paired with investments in education, anti-poverty, ending hunger, and creating good-paying jobs, will help ensure that all Georgians, regardless of their zip code, feel safe and secure”

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and seven Senate colleagues reintroduced the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2024, the most comprehensive bill to reform law enforcement and strengthen police accountability in the country’s history. The sweeping legislation was first introduced in 2020 in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is the first bill aimed at ending police brutality and 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 Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX-18) reintroduced companion legislation in the House earlier this year.

“Our communities won’t truly know safety until it’s paired with accountability,” said Senator Reverend Warnock. “The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act takes a comprehensive approach towards building trust and respect between communities and law enforcement. This legislation, when paired with investments in education, anti-poverty, ending hunger, and creating good-paying jobs, will help ensure that all Georgians, regardless of their zip code, feel safe and secure. As someone who ministers to law enforcement members and fully supports public safety, I understand the importance of setting aside politics, centering people, and getting this done.”

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 recklessnessly” 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.

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; and

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 officersMandating state and local law enforcement agencies report use of force data, disaggregated by race, sex, disability, religion, and 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.

Establish local task forces to develop innovative law enforcement and non-law enforcement strategies to enhance just and equitable

To read the full text of the bill, click HERE.