Cornyn backing a mix of reforms
GOP senator offers support for registry on cops’ use of force
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said Thursday that a national registry documenting use of force by police and grants to help small departments offer better training are among the reforms he would support as a member of the Senate group crafting legislation in response to the George Floyd killing.
He also called for the Senate to pass the anti-lynching bill that Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky blocked this month, and he again called for the creation of a commission to conduct a “top-to-bottom review of our criminal justice system.”
“I think the question is, do you use a carrot or do you use a stick,” Cornyn said. “And I think a lot of the police are pretty suspicious of being punished for doing a very difficult job, and I think the right approach is to find some way to incentivize them.”
The Texan is a member of a group of Senate Republicans led by Tim Scott of South Carolina working on policing reforms.
The effort comes as Democrats push sweeping legislation that would ban chokeholds and no-knock search warrants in drug cases, bolster the Justice Department’s authority to crack down on misconduct and chip away at some of officers’ legal protections when they are sued in civil court, among other things.
George Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, on Wednesday testified before the House committee considering those changes, saying, “It is on you to make sure his death is not in vain.” George Floyd, a Houstonian, was killed last month by police in Minneapolis.
Republicans have voiced opposition to some of the major
pieces of that legislation, including reforms to qualified immunity, which protects police from being sued.
While the Democratic bill calls for a registry of police misconduct, Cornyn supports mandating the reporting to an existing FBI registry of uses of force that cause death or serious injury.
“There are things we could do in terms of funding to provide funding for police training, whether it’s de-escalation training, incentivize mental health checks,” said Cornyn, a former Texas attorney general and state Supreme Court justice. “You can imagine just with the things law enforcement sees on a day-to-day basis and the challenges they are presented that I think there does need to be some additional help there because you can become jaded and desensitized.”
Cornyn said small police departments don’t have the resources to offer the training that many big-city departments have.
“I think providing best practices and providing financial support for training would be two of the things Congress can do that would be the most productive at this point,” he said.
He also renewed calls for a criminal justice commission that would have been created by legislation he co-sponsored that previously passed the Senate unanimously.
“This should not just be a one-time episode,” he said. “This ought to be a continuing basis, and we haven’t done this top-tobottom review of our criminal justice system at the national level since 1965.”