Nancy Pelosi, House Democrats Introduce ‘Justice In Policing Act’ In Wake Of George Floyd’s Death

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her Democrat colleagues introduced a police reform bill, the “Justice in Policing Act,” in the wake of the George Floyd protests, NBC News reported.

Floyd, a 47-year-old unarmed African-American man, died in police custody two weeks ago, after Minneapolis Police Department officer Derek Chauvin allegedly pushed his knee on his neck for almost 9 minutes. Floyd’s death sparked nationwide protests, calling for reform within police departments and the abolition of certain police tactics that critics say have contributed to the deaths of men like Floyd, as well as other purported abuses.

The act introduced on Monday intends to address many of those issues.

The bill would ban police from using chokeholds on suspects and detainees; it was a chokehold that is believed to have led to the death of Eric Garner in New York City in 2014. Garner famously gasped “I can’t breathe” as he died; the phrase has become something of a rallying call for police reform since his death.

Further, the bill bans so-called “no-knock warrants” in drug cases; a no-knock warrant is believed to have been the catalyst for the death of Breonna Taylor, a Louisville woman who was shot and killed by police while she slept. Her boyfriend, believing their home was being invaded, fired his gun at what he believed were intruders, and the police returned fire. The drug suspect the police were looking for was already in custody.

Beyond banning certain controversial police tactics, the bill would also require local police departments to compile data on the use of force and send it to the federal government. Currently, there is no federal record-keeping of people killed by police, let alone incidents of use of force. The bill would also provide grant money to local police departments in order to create processes by which complaints of police misconduct or alleged police brutality would be reviewed by a third party, rather than the police department itself.

It further requires all uniformed police officers to use body cameras at all times and marked federal police vehicles must have dashcams. The legislation would also limit the transfer of military-grade equipment to police departments.

In a statement, Pelosi referred to George Floyd, the man whose death spurred the protests that have called for police reform, a “martyr.”

“The martyrdom of George Floyd gave the American experience a moment of national anguish as we grieve for the black Americans killed by police brutality today,” she said.