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Schneider Statement on House Passage of George Floyd Justice in Policing Act

March 3, 2021

Legislation will change the culture of law enforcement, rebuild trust between police officers and communities

WASHINGTON – Today Congressman Brad Schneider (IL-10) released the following statement after the House passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act:

"In the months since George Floyd was brutally murdered by a police officer, communities across the nation have united to demand justice and change. His death may have been the spark, but the true force motivating these protests was the systemic racism that harms Black Americans every day. I am proud that my colleagues in the House once again passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing act to constructively change the culture of law enforcement, hold police accountable and build trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. We cannot allow this moment to pass without real change," said Congressman Brad Schneider (IL-10).

Schneider is an original cosponsor of H.R. 1280, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021, a major package of reforms to improve law enforcement accountability, transparency, and training to address decades of systemic racism and excessive policing.

The Justice in Policing Act of 2021:

  • 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 on 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 Task force 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.