The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed the house this March and was received by the Senate later that month where it is yet to receive a vote from the full chamber. The bill would introduce a myriad of reforms to American policing that would help address problematic policing practices including:

• Prohibiting racial and religious profiling for federal, state, and local law enforcement

• Banning no-knock warrants in Federal level drug cases and making state and local law enforcement funding conditional on banning no-knock warrants

• Banning chokeholds and carotid holds at the federal level and making state and local law enforcement funding conditional on banning chokeholds and carotid holds

Just Policies strongly endorses these reforms. The use of racial and religious profiling by police has contributed to people of color being disproportionately stopped by police. Research on data collected from 14 million traffic stops in North Carolina from 2002 to 2016 found that Blacks were 63% more likely to be stopped than whites and 115% more likely to be searched in a traffic stop. This despite evidence that contraband was more likely to be in searches of white drivers.

No-knock warrants allow law enforcement to enter a property without notifying residents or identifying themselves as law enforcement, which can lead to chaos and violence as in the killing of Breonna Taylor last March. Louisville Metro police executed a no-knock warrant search of Kenneth Walker Taylor’s boyfriend, wherein Walker fired on police believing them to be home invaders, as he claims he heard no knock nor announcement (police claim they did knock and announce themselves). Taylor was killed by police as she was shot 5 times as police fired more than a dozen rounds into the apartment. Ending no-knock warrants can prevent the confusion and violence that resulted in Breonna Taylor’s death from happening again.

Chokeholds and carotid also pose a dramatic danger to victims while safer alternatives exist to control suspects. The most infamous example of this was the killing of Eric Garner in 2019 by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo after Pantaleo placed Garner in a prohibited chokehold. Bill Smok, police surgeon for the Louisville Metro police department was quoted in a Washington Post article saying “There is no such thing as making it safe with proper training. Any pressure to the neck is dangerous and can cause serious physical injury, rips to the artery, damage to the internal organs, stroke and death. I don’t care what you call pressure to the neck, it is all strangulation, and it is all dangerous.”

Along with efforts to reform police practices, the bill also includes measures designed to increase police accountability both on the streets and in the courtroom. These reforms include:

• Lowering the criminal standard to convict law enforcement of misconduct in federal court from “willful” to “knowing” or “reckless.”

• Limiting Qualified Immunity as a defense for law enforcement in civil suits

• Mandating body cameras for all federal uniformed officers and making state and local law enforcement funding conditional on ensuring state and local law enforcement wear body cameras

The lowering of the criminal standard for federal prosecution combined with the limitation of Qualified Immunity represents greater accountability for police officers in both criminal and civil court. Officers would be held accountable for their actions in cases where they are currently subject to no legal consequences. Many officers involved in high-profile shootings and killings of Black men have faced no legal ramifications in criminal or civil court. Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who killed Eric Garner with a chokehold prohibited by the NYPD faced no legal repercussions. Nor did Jeronimo Yanez, the officer who killed Philado Castille in front of his girlfriend and 4-year-old child after Castille informed Yanez he had a legal firearm in the car. Nor has officer Rusten Sheskey who shot Jacob Blake 7 times in the back at point-blank range, also in front of his two children.

By passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act onto the desk of President Biden, the Senate can help protect the citizens of the United States from dangerous police practices including chokeholds and no-knock warrants. They can protect people of color from discrimination and improve the efficacy of police work, and they can help repair public trust in police by holding irresponsible and dangerous police officers accountable.

Just Policies is working with elected representatives across the country to help pass this bill. We encourage you to reach out to your senator and insist that they vote “yes” on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to protect the citizens of this country and ensure that officers who commit police brutality are held to account.