Friend --

George Floyd's murder is a clarion call: Enough -- we need federal action now.

As Americans march and protest in cities and towns all across our country, the message is simple and clear -- we must do better, and we need better laws on the books.

The Trump Department of Justice is missing in action when it comes to upholding civil liberties and investigating wrongful deaths. Under President Trump, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and current Attorney General William Barr, the DOJ has not opened a single major pattern and practice investigation of systemic abuses by police departments.

Congress must act. It is time for us not only to speak out about injustice; it's time that we pass new federal laws to protect the civil liberties of all American people and protect them from these injustices.

That's why I've joined with Senate Democrats to co-sponsor the Justice in Policing Act of 2020. Now -- this is a lot of information, but in light of what is happening around our country, I believe that you need and deserve to know the details of our plan to address police reform.

The Justice in Policing Act of 2020's key provisions are:

• 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;


• Contains the full text of the "Emmett Till Antilynching Act," which makes lynching a federal hate crime.

George Floyd's civil rights were violated, and the American people deserve and demand real action now.

The Trump DOJ cannot continue to abdicate its role in civil rights oversight and enforcement. It's time for Attorney General Barr to uphold the rights of all Americans, not just some. And it's time for Congress to take our role seriously and respond to George Floyd's death.

We are a great country, and we can do better and meet this challenge.

Thank you,

Maria Cantwell