This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Projectthe nonprofit news organization covering the U.s. criminal justice system.
Eighteen days after, George, Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police, the The Minnesota state Legislature introduced 48 bills in the special session on law enforcement. On the same day Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is signed on to the new bill restricting police chokeholds, and the New York city Government. Andrew Cuomo signed a series of police reforms into law, including the repealing an obscure law, that section 50 of thethat shielded the police disciplinary records from public scrutiny.
More lawmakers across the country are proposing changes to how police operate. In the three weeks after the Floyd”s death and the ensuing nationwide protests against police brutality, 16 state legislatures have discussed the issues roiling the country. As of Tuesday, legislatures had vegetation, amended or passed 159 bills and resolutions related to policing, including the bills that were introduced in both chambers, according to the the database compiled by the National Conference of State Legislaturesthe nonpartisan association of state lawmakers.
Of course, in politics, talking about doing something is one thing. Doing it is another. By June 16, with nine of these bills have become law, and seven more are waiting for governors’ signatures. In all, three state legislatures — in Colorado, Iowa, and New York — have passed policing bill.
Looking at the action in the statehouse has its limits, because the police reform usually happens on the local level, the cities and towns decide how to fund and regulate their own police forces. The sheer number of new bills can also be misleading: some state legislatures will eventually bundle multiple bills related to the same topic, and pass them to the one bus stop from the bill.
Still, the state legislatures can hold tremendous power on issues like the setting for pensions police officers, and the new wave of state-level bills represents how swiftly the conversation in policing has shifted since the death of the Band.
An analysis of the conference’the database shows that the majority of the reform bills introduced since Floyd”s death, the focus on police oversight, and regulating the use of force, like banning chokeholds, building public databases of traffic stops. and establishing an independent agency to investigate misconduct.
Jamaal Bailey, a New York state senator who represents parts of the Bronx and Westchester County, said, ” it’s been a humbling experience to represent the constituents who are taking their anger and frustration with police brutality to the streets. Since Floyd”s death, the three policing bills He sponsored — repealing the 50-to, establishing a special unit in the attorney general’s office to investigate police misconduct and requiring officers to pay attention to the medical and mental health needs of people in their custody — were signed into law.
“The People have spoken,” He said. “Folks have been complaining about police brutality for so many years, and it just goes away. It couldn’t go away this time. Not only that we are going to take to the street, but we are also going to push for changes in the legislature.”
Patrick Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association of New York City, which I was not happy with the action in the statehouse.
“Governor Cuomo and our legislative leaders have on business, celebrating today,” Lynch said in a statement when the reforms were signed into law. New York state had been failing our communities for decades … Police officers spend our days addressing the issues caused by these failures section. Now, we won’t even be able to do that.”
Currently, more than half of the state legislatures are out of session, many because of the impact of the COVID-19. Amber Widgery, who leads the criminal justice program at the NCSL, said she expects more as the police reform bills from the state legislatures when they reconvene. Some governors, like Kate Brown of Oregon, have already announced they will call legislatures back into session to address police accountability.
Widgery said the speed at which some of the reform bills are making their way through the chambers is particularly noteworthy. Iowa”s police reform bill is passed-through the state’s Republican-controlled legislature with the support is unanimous in just one dayand the governor signed it the next. It gives the state attorney general the power to prosecute police officers, ban chokeholds, and restricts police departments from hiring officers with records of misconduct.
Iowa state Rep. Ras Smith, one of the main architects of the new reforms, said it took less than two weeks to craft the legislation.
“We don’t get to pick the moment in which we have allies who can unite, and if we can get something done,” Smith said. “This was one of those opportunities in which we could really gain ground by finding the commonality addressing, and in fact something that went beyond politics. But that’s also something means that we have to be mindful of knowing that they may not feel that way tomorrow. It’s still the yet-to-be-seen — this-is-the-first-step trial, the verdict is still out.”
Some states have not passed legislation, and there are a variety of the roadblocks facing legislators. On June 3, the Kansas state Rep. by Rui Xu proposed in the resolution condemning the police brutality, racism and use of excessive and militarized force, but it died quickly, the next day, when the legislature adjourned its special session.
Xu said, he never truly expected to get his criminal justice bill passed in the state’s Republican-led House and Senate.
“I just wanted to show, at the very least, the people of color in Kansas, there are legislative people in power who wanted to do something about this. The resolution doesn’t have the force of law, but we do have ideas,” Xu said.
By Daniel Feldman, professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said he is cautiously optimistic that the rush of legislation suggests the change will continue to come, even after the daily protests, I ebb.
“The unjustified killing of Black citizens you are little by little changed the people’s wrong assumptions about interactions with the police,” Feldman said. “We may see the reactions to the George Floyd”s death, ace’s instant, but the psychological shift that has happened over a period of time. It may be a permanent shift in opinion.”
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