Defund or invest? Congress looks to power of federal dollars to reform police departments
WASHINGTON — While law enforcement is largely managed by local governments, there is a growing sense on Capitol Hill in light of George Floyd’s death that federal policing reform is needed, lawmakers in both parties said last week. And as some cities have heeded demands by some groups to defund and dismantle their police departments, Congress showed little interest in requiring police to turn in their badges.
House Democrats introduced the Justice in Policing Act, which was forged from more than 50 individual proposals by the Congressional Black Caucus.
Among other things, the bill would: ban chokeholds and noknock warrants in drug cases; toughen use-of-force standards and lower police immunity protections; restrict sales of militarygrade equipment to police; require body and dashboard cameras; and create a National Police Misconduct Registry to prevent officers from changing jurisdictions to avoid accountability.
Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., chairwoman of the caucus, called it a “transformative vision of policing in America” during a press conference.
The legislation was co-sponsored by Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, who noted the protests in Pittsburgh and demands for real reform across the country.
“No one can dispute that for far too long this discriminatory behavior has existed in the communities and nothing’s been done about,” Mr. Doyle said in an interview. “I think, this time, people want to see substantive change, and I hope and believe that we’re going to be able to do it.”
A companion bill introduced in the Senate was supported by Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who said in a statement, “it is time for us to create structural change that safeguards every American’s right to safety and equal justice.”
The first witness called at a House hearing was Philonise Floyd, younger brother of George Floyd, who said “It is on you to make sure his death is not in vain. To make sure that he is more than another face on a Tshirt, more than another name on a list that won’t stop growing.”
The debate in Washington played out as city governments pledged to carry out cuts to their police. The mayors of the country’s two largest cities said they supported removing resources from law enforcement, and a veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council pledged to defund their police department and move to a different system of law enforcement.
Republicans seized on the “defund the police” slogan.
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, RPeters, and a member of the House Judiciary Committee, used his allotted time during Wednesday’s hearing to have a witness explain why defunding the police would lead to more crime.
“If anything, the murder of George Floyd demonstrates the need to invest more in our police departments,” Mr. Reschenthaler said. “We should focus on promoting training to promote good police practices. … We must recognize, and we must empower good police officers while terminating bad actors.
Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, recalled the Officer Friendly program from when he was in school. “He or she would go around and talk with students and building a kind of relationship so that you weren’t afraid of the police,” Mr. Kelly said in an interview.
If cuts to traditional policing would mean putting “dollars into something else that they think would be more positive or have a better return, that’s certainly something worth looking at,” Mr. Kelly said.
Mr. Doyle noted the wide budget disparities among the dozens of police departments in his district, ranging from the Pittsburgh to small municipalities in the Mon Valley.
“This bill is not about defunding,” he said. “It going to do a lot of things that we believe will make policing better for the residents that are being policed and the police themselves.”
Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Mt. Lebanon, said he and many police chiefs support the federal registry, the chokehold ban and more federal funding for training purposes.
“What this moment represents is a chance for us to ask ourselves: Are we funding the police is the most effective possible
manner?” Mr. Lamb said.
He said the bill’s proposed use of force standard needs some work, calling it “lengthy and complicated” compared with the speed with which officers have to react.
“Officers have to make very split-second judgments a lot of times about the use of force, which is why training is so important,” Mr. Lamb said. “Police departments are hungry to train their people.”
On the national level, there is little appetite to cut police budgets. The AFL-CIO resisted pressure from some factions of the labor movement to cut ties with police unions. And the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which has launched a new Working Group on Police Reform and Racial Justice, applauded the Congressional Black Caucus’ legislation.
“We are on the front lines of this important conversation with our community and many mayors and police chiefs initiated police reform and accountability measures years ago and have a wealth of experience to add to this most important discussion,” the group said in a statement.
But federal dollars could play a larger role investing in police departments.
The Community Oriented Policing Services program, established as part of the 1994 crime bill, has provided $14 billion to hire and train officers involved in community policing, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Earlier this month, the department announced COPS grants for 596 law enforcement agencies to hire 2,732 additional full-time officers. McKeesport and Johnstown each received $250,000 to hire two officers, and New Sewickley received $375,000 to hire three officers.
Last week, Sen. Tim Scott,
R-S.C., the only AfricanAmerican in the U.S. Senate, reintroduced the Walter Scott Notification Act, legislation he first introduced in 2015 following Walter Scott’s death in a police encounter. The bill requires states that receive federal funding for law enforcement to report specific details of such events.
Fewer than 45% of law enforcement agencies actually report their information to the FBI, said Mr. Scott,, who discussed the proposal with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Jared Kushner, the president’s sonin-law.
“We need order in our of streets, and the easiest way to have that is to have a strong presence of character-driven law enforcement officers,” Mr. Scott said. “There’s also no doubt in my mind that, when you look at the actual facts, black folks are 2.5 times more likely to be shot by an officer than whites.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters last week that a legislative response was “important” and part of the country’s reckoning with the “original sin” of slavery.
“None of us have had the experience of being an African American in this country and dealing with this discrimination, which persists here some 50 years after the 1964 civil rights bill and the 1965 civil rights bill,” Mr. McConnell said.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., was still reviewing all the proposals and planned to follow the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on police use of force, scheduled for June 16, a spokesperson said.
The House is scheduled to return to Washington and meet on June 25. Mr. Doyle said he expects it could vote on the policing bill that day.