Commercial Appeal - Cohen: Independent prosecutors should probe deadly police force

Cases involving police use of deadly force should be investigated by an independent prosecutor instead of local prosecuting attorneys who often work closely with law-enforcement officers and thus have a conflict of interest, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen said Wednesday.

Cohen, a Memphis Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Lacy Clay, D-Mo., filed legislation that seeks to push state and local governments to require independent investigations and prosecutions into allegations of deadly police force. The lawmakers say the legislation would provide justice to victims of police violence.

“The need for reform is as clear as it is urgent,” said Cohen, citing recent incidents of deadly police force in Ferguson, Missouri; Staten Island, New York; North Charleston, South Carolina; Cleveland, and Baltimore.

“Excessive force must end,” Cohen said. “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.”

Under the bill, the Police Training and Independent Review Act of 2015, states and local governments would have to pass laws mandating that allegations of deadly police force be handled by an independent prosecutor if they are to keep all of their federal criminal justice funding. Those that don’t could lose 20 percent of that funding.

The bill also would require that enrollees at law enforcement academies receive sensitivity training on ethics and racial bias, cultural diversity and police interaction with the disabled, mentally ill and new immigrants.

That provision mirrors a key recommendation from the Ferguson Commission, an independent group that studied social and economic conditions in the Missouri city following protests of the shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white officer last August.