Dear Friend,

Over and over, in communities across the country, we have seen Black men, women, and even children treated with violence and suspicion that white Americans never experience. The murders of George Floyd at the hands of police officers who were supposed to protect him, of Breonna Taylor by police executing a mistaken no-knock warrant, and of Ahmaud Arbery—who was killed for having the audacity to go jogging as a Black man—have shocked our national conscience and brought about a long overdue conversation about systemic racism and police reform. I stand with those peaceful protestors who are taking to the streets and demanding real change. 

Policing is a local issue, and much of the change we need to see will come at the state and local level. But there are areas where we can and must take action at the federal level. It will take sustained effort at every level of government and society. But we cannot let the size of the problem serve as an excuse not to act.

That’s why I joined this week with Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Kamala Harris, and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, to introduce legislation called the Justice in Policing Act of 2020. This is the first comprehensive legislative approach to ending police brutality and changing the culture of law enforcement departments by holding police accountable in court for misconduct, increasing transparency through better data collection, and improving police practices and training. At the bottom of this email, you’ll find some bullets spelling out exactly what the bill would do.

This legislation may not be perfect, and as the legislative process proceeds we should be open to further improvements, as well as important reforms we should pursue at the state and local level. We should also continue to engage the many members of law enforcement who are working in good faith to bring change to their own neighborhoods and communities. But the introduction of the Justice in Policing Act is a vital first step to ensuring that the principle of equal justice under the law is realized for all Americans, and I am proud to support this effort.

This bill is not the end of the conversation. It is just one part of a long-term effort that our nation must undertake to end systemic racism, not just in our policing and criminal justice system, but also in our healthcare system, our economy, and other aspects of American life. I commit to being a part of that effort, and I invite you to use the survey at the bottom of this email to share your thoughts on how we can achieve those goals.

If you want to share your thoughts about an issue that’s important to you, you can send me an email any time using the form on my Senate website. You can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Specifically, the Justice in Policing Act of 2020 would:

Hold police accountable in our courts by: 

• Reforming qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that as currently interpreted shields law enforcement officers from being held legally liable for violating 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 state attorneys general to conduct pattern and practice investigations; 
• Reforming the federal criminal statute to prosecute police misconduct, from “willfulness” to a “recklessness” standard;
• Incentivizing states to create independent investigative structures for police involved deaths; and
• Creating best practices recommendations based on President Obama’s 21st Century Policing Task Force

Improve transparency into policing by collecting better and more accurate data of police misconduct and use-of-force by:

• Creating a National Police Misconduct Registry to prevent problem-officers from changing jurisdictions to avoid accountability; and
• Mandating 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 use of force standard for federal officers from reasonableness to only when necessary to prevent death or serious bodily injury;
• 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 camera          

Make lynching a federal crime by:

• Making it a federal crime to conspire to violate existing federal hate crimes laws