House Acts to Immediately Grab Police Powers at Local Level

Your New Local PD Overseers...

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act

This bill addresses a wide range of policies and issues regarding policing practices and law enforcement accountability. It includes measures to increase accountability for law enforcement misconduct, to enhance transparency and data collection, and to eliminate discriminatory policing practices.

The bill facilitates federal enforcement of constitutional violations (e.g., excessive use of force) by state and local law enforcement. Among other things, it does the following:

• lowers the criminal intent standard—from willful to knowing or reckless—to convict a law enforcement officer for misconduct in a federal prosecution, 

• limits qualified immunity as a defense to liability in a private civil action against a law enforcement officer or state correctional officer, and 

• authorizes the Department of Justice to issue subpoenas in investigations of police departments for a pattern or practice of discrimination.

The bill also creates a national registry—the National Police Misconduct Registry—to compile data on complaints and records of police misconduct.

It establishes a framework to prohibit racial profiling at the federal, state, and local levels.

The bill establishes new requirements for law enforcement officers and agencies, including to report data on use-of-force incidents, to obtain training on implicit bias and racial profiling, and to wear body cameras.

Accountable to who?  DOJ and the Deep State, of course. 

(CNN) The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved legislation aimed at preventing police misconduct that Democrats named in honor of George Floyd, whose death in police custody sparked nationwide calls to overhaul policing and address racial injustice.

House Democrats originally introduced and passed the bill -- titled the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act -- last year in the wake of Floyd's death, but it never passed in the Senate, which was under Republican control at the time. Supporters of the bill say it would improve law enforcement accountability and work to root out racial bias in policing.

Two moderate Democrats -- Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Ron Kind of Wisconsin -- opposed the measure, while GOP Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas said after the fact that he had voted for it by accident.

Democrats now control the Senate, which has a 50-50 partisan split with Vice President Kamala Harris acting as the tie breaker. But most legislation in that chamber still requires 60 votes to overcome a filibuster and it's not clear there would be enough Republican support to get the legislation across the finish line in the Senate.

Rep. Karen Bass, a California Democrat who is leading police overhaul efforts in the House, told reporters on Wednesday, "We are still trying to transform policing in the United States" and said that she is "confident that we will be able to have a bipartisan bill in the Senate that will reach President Biden's desk."

The legislation would set up a national registry of police misconduct to stop officers from evading consequences for their actions by moving to another jurisdiction. It would ban racial and religious profiling by law enforcement at the federal, state and local levels, and it would overhaul qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that critics say shields law enforcement from accountability.

According to a fact sheet on the legislation, the measure would allow "individuals to recover damages in civil court when law enforcement officers violate their constitutional rights by eliminating qualified immunity for law enforcement." The fact sheet also states that the legislation would "save lives by banning chokeholds and no-knock warrants" and would mandate "deadly force be used only as a last resort."

Discussing next steps for the legislation, Bass said ahead of the House vote, "We will begin those discussions with the Senate immediately after the bill is passed," adding, "Over the last several weeks, discussions especially with Sen. Tim Scott and Sen. Cory Booker have been under way."

Scott, a South Carolina Republican who led Senate GOP efforts to address policing in the wake of Floyd's death, said earlier in the week, "I'm talking to both sides and hopefully we'll come up with something that actually works."

Scott also said, "What I'm interested is in finding a path forward on areas where we agree. we have not gotten to a place where we agree on qualified immunity."

When the policing bill passed the House last year, it was approved largely along party lines amid Republican opposition with three Republicans crossing party lines to vote in favor: Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Will Hurd of Texas, who has since retired from Congress, and Fred Upton of Michigan.

The House made plans to vote on the bill Wednesday night, but the vote had earlier been slated for Thursday.

A Democratic aide told CNN earlier Wednesday that there was discussion of the House staying late to avoid coming in Thursday in light of Capitol Police warning about security risks.

US officials have alerted lawmakers to a potential threat against the US Capitol on March 4, for which security has been enhanced as a precaution, less than two months after the Capitol complex was stormed and lawmakers' lives were threatened by rioters.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments Wednesday.

CNN's Whitney Wild, Annie Grayer, Jim Sciutto, Manu Raju, Ali Zaslav and Jamie Ehrlich contributed to this report.

Merrick Garland wants your sheriff to answer to him.  Consent Decrees to follow.