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Congressmen Cohen & Clay Introduce Bill to Help Provide Justice to Victims of Police Violence

May 14, 2015

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, has joined Congressman Lacy Clay (MO-01), who represents Ferguson, Missouri, to introduce the Police Training and Independent Review Act of 2015. The legislation would help encourage incidents of deadly force used by police to be investigated and, if need be, prosecuted, by an independent entity as well as provide improved training for police officers. Currently, these cases are rarely prosecuted effectively due to an obvious conflict of interest between local police and the prosecuting District Attorney, who relies on a close working relationship with those same police officers to carry out other prosecutorial duties.

“America received a sobering wakeup call last year in Ferguson, followed by others in Staten Island, Cleveland, North Charleston, and more recently in Baltimore,” said Congressman Cohen. “The need for reform is as clear as it is urgent. Officers need better training. Excessive force must end. Justice shouldn’t just depend on whether a bystander catches bad acts on video. Expecting local prosecutors to prosecute the same officers upon whom they rely to do their job presents a clear conflict of interest, and it is unnecessary. Congress must act, and I am proud to join with my friend, Congressman Lacy Clay, to bring fairness to our criminal justice system.”

The new legislation would incentivize states to adopt laws requiring independent investigations and prosecutions of law enforcement officers in cases where one or more of the alleged offenses involves an officer’s use of deadly force in the course of carrying out his or her official duties. The bill would also require all local law enforcement agencies who receive full federal Byrne-JAG funding to ensure that enrollees at law enforcement academies receive sensitivity training on ethnic and racial bias, cultural diversity, and police interaction with the disabled, mentally ill, and new immigrants, mirroring a key recommendation from the Ferguson Commission. New police academy candidates would be required to complete a minimum of 8 hours of training while active duty police officers would be required to complete 4 hours of training on an annual basis.

“In the wake of Ferguson; Staten Island; Cleveland; North Charleston; and Baltimore, the urgent need to require all police officers to receive specialized sensitivity training in order to help them deescalate volatile situations is clearly a national public safety priority,” said Congressman Clay. “This bill, which I am proud to coauthor with my good friend and colleague, Congressman Steve Cohen, would require sensitivity training for all police officers in the areas of race, ethnic bias, and interactions with disabled persons and new immigrants. It would also establish incentives to encourage states to adopt new laws that would require an independent prosecutor in all cases where police use deadly force. Both core ideas in Clay-Cohen address key recommendations from the Ferguson Commission and the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.”

Earlier this year, Congressman Cohen also reintroduced his National Statistics on Deadly Force Transparency Act, which would close a loophole in federal law that prevents adequate collection of comprehensive national data regarding justified and unjustified fatal interactions with police. Without accurate and comprehensive data, racial disparities, abuses, and instances of excessive use of force are difficult to identify and unlikely to be fixed.

“Before we can truly address the problem of excessive force used by law enforcement we have to understand the nature of the problem and that begins with accurate data,” said Congressman Cohen. “I introduced the National Statistics on Deadly Force Transparency Act so our country can do a better job of honestly assessing racial disparities and other problems in our justice system and begin to fix them. It is a step in the right direction and a critical component of the healing process.”

The 1994 Crime Bill requires the Attorney General to collect statistics on the use of excessive force, but the law does not provide any enforcement mechanism nor does it adequately define what “excessive force” is. As a result, the federal government has been unable to gather data from many local police departments and there are no reliable statistics on how often law enforcement uses deadly force. Congressman Cohen’s legislation would incentivize states to require local law enforcement agencies to provide data to the Attorney General on:

  • The date of each instance when deadly force was used;
  • The identifying characteristics of the victim and officer involved, including the race, gender, ethnicity, religion and approximate age of the victim;
  • Any alleged criminal behavior by the victim;
  • An explanation, if any, by the relevant law enforcement agency of why deadly force was used;
  • A copy of any use of deadly force guidelines in effect at the time at the law enforcement agency;
  • The nature of the deadly force used, including whether it involved a firearm; and
  • A description of any non-lethal efforts that were taken before deadly force was used.

This data would be made publicly available, but would not disclose any personally identifying information.