USA TODAY International Edition
Protests lead to wave of policing reforms
George Floyd’s death has prompted bans on neck restraints
Cities and states across the nation are reevaluating police policies as the demand for change continues among citizens outraged by George Floyd’s death in the custody of a Minneapolis officer.
It’s not just big cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix and Houston. Police policies are under scrutiny in places such as Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Greensboro, North Carolina; and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The specifics of Floyd’s death appear to have driven many of the proposed changes.
The most widespread efforts ban the use of neck restraints or neck holds, according to USA TODAY research. Floyd died after former Officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes.
Similarly, nearly a dozen cities have proposed legislation that would require officers to intervene when other authorities are using excessive force. Three officers watched as Chauvin kept Floyd pinned.
Other measures have included cutting funding to police departments, creating training programs and increasing transparency.
Ban on chokeholds
Generally, police categorize neck restraints in two ways: the stranglehold and the chokehold. Strangleholds, or carotid restraints, temporarily cut off blood flow to the brain. They are meant to render a person unconscious. Chokeholds restrict breathing by applying pressure to the windpipe.
Long before Floyd’s death, cities such as New York ( 1993) Chicago ( 2012) and San Jose ( 2016) had already banned chokeholds.
Now in at least 23 cities, local governments or law enforcement agencies have completely or partially banned police from using chokeholds, carotid restraints or both. The partial bans have generally restricted neck restraints to situations where deadly force is considered necessary. States are following suit.
On June 5, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced that the state will partially ban police departments from using chokeholds and similar tactics.
Gov. Gavin Newsom called for California to prohibit a carotid restraint, and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont issued an executive order banning a variety of chokeholds by state police.
Duty to intervene
Some law enforcement agencies, most of them in smaller cities, now require officers to intervene when seeing other authorities using excessive force.
Failure to intervene now results in disciplinary action in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, officers could face criminal prosecution.
Defunding the police
Many cities, including the nation’s two largest, have pledged to cut funding from their police departments.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced a sweeping set of changes that would shift funding from the NYPD to “youth development and social services for communities of color,” and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has vowed to pull $ 150 million from the LAPD to boost funding for health care, jobs and “peace centers.”
In San Francisco, supervisor Shamann Walton announced plans to redirect funding from the police to Black communities. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh announced the city would reallocate $ 15 million of its police department budget.
Boston has proposed $ 414 million to fund the Boston Police Department in fiscal year 2020- 2021.
The Austin, Texas, city council eliminated positions in the police department and diverted funds for crowdcontrol weapons into alternative public safety strategies.
The Portland, Oregon, city council’s budget cuts $ 15 million from the police bureau.
Increased transparency
On June 9, New York state lawmakers repealed a decades- old law that has kept law enforcement officers’ disciplinary records secret. The measure to make officers’ records public is among several police accountability bills moving through the state Legislature. Others would provide all state troopers with body cameras and ensure that police officers provide medical and mental health attention to people in custody.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker is reportedly planning a bill that would create a statewide certification system for police.
Some cities have implemented measures intended to create more transparency for fatal incidents, such as requiring comprehensive reporting, and the release of footage from body cams. For example, legislation adopted in Washington, D. C., called for body cam footage to be released within 72 hours after an officer- involved fatality and prohibiting the officer from watching the footage before writing the report on the incident.
Better training and education
A policing reform bill passed in Washington, D. C., will require officers to undergo further training on racism and white supremacy. The Albany Police Department will require teaching the history of racism in the United States to its members.
Statewide community college systems in California and Virginia have announced plans to review their training programs for law enforcement officers.
Other reforms
On June 11, all 26 members of the Louisville Metro Council voted to pass a ban on no- knock warrants, a measure known as Breonna’s Law, named after the former emergency medical technician who died in a police raid at her apartment.
On June 12, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said police would no longer respond to calls for “noncriminal activity,” such as disputes between neighbors and complaints about homeless people, part of reforms she is pushing amid protests.
To address racial bias statewide, the Ohio Mayors Alliance has created a Police Reform Support Network. The joint effort will focus on turning ideas into action by supporting policy changes at the local level. Ohio cities will share best practices and policy standards with each other and help with local implementation.
Some schools are also canceling their contracts with their local police departments.
In Minneapolis, school officials this month severed their decades- long relationship with the police department. The Denver Public Schools Board of Education has voted unanimously to end its contract with the DPD, which provides school resource officers to the district.
Portland Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero announced that the largest school district in Oregon is “discontinuing the regular presence of school resource officers.”