Newsletter: Reforming Policing in America

Yesterday George Floyd was laid to rest, two weeks after he was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer. Our country has literally been transformed since his tragic death.

Americans have protested, marched and held vigils in cities, towns and villages across the country—demanding justice and calling for important and dramatic change. I have been privileged to join gatherings in communities in all corners of our district. Many of these events were organized by students. All were peaceful, emotional and inspiring.

In Waukegan and North Chicago, Lake Forest/Lake Bluff, Buffalo Grove, Grayslake, Glencoe, Zion, Libertyville, and Northbrook, I listened and learned, and sometimes cried as people young and old shared their heartfelt, and often painful stories.

Marching in solidarity with Zion Mayor Billy McKinney and State Senator Melinda Bush

Clockwise from top left: photos from events in Zion, Libertyville, Northbrook, and Grayslake

George Floyd should be alive today. Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and so many others should all be alive today. Their tragic deaths expose a system of law enforcement in dire need of reform. To truly honor their memories, we need to take action with reforms to address the systemic racism and excessive policing targeting Black Americans and other communities of color.

Motivated by the events of the past two weeks, on Monday, I was proud to join the Congressional Black Caucus and many other of my House colleagues in introducing the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, a major reform package to end police brutality, improve transparency and hold officers accountable for their actions. This legislation is long overdue, and a needed corrective to ensure our nation lives up to its promise of equality under the law.

Specifically, the Justice in Policing Act of 2020:

• 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.

This legislation, like all major reforms, faces a steep climb to become law. I feel confident my colleagues and I will pass it in the House in coming weeks, but we require the Senate to take action as well, and ultimately the signature from the President.

But I take hope from the protests, marches, and vigils we have seen across the country and around the world. At each I saw a multiracial coalition that cuts across easy categorization calling for changes. Americans of all political persuasions have been disgusted by the injustice and racism laid bare over the past few weeks. I hope our elected leaders at all levels of government heed their call and find the courage to act.

Marching in solidarity with students from Waukegan to North Chicago

Northbrook students, with their mothers, seeking justice and change

Stay strong, stay safe, stay healthy,