GREENSBORO, N.C. — According to Vice President Kamala Harris, reforming the whole system starts with the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act. She introduced it last Summer while she was still a Senator.
"This bill would hold, law enforcement accountable, and help build trust between law enforcement and our communities. This bill is part of George Floyd's legacy. The President and I will continue to urge the Senate to pass this legislation, not as a panacea for every problem, but as a start," Harris said.
The act would require all law enforcement officers to take anti-discrimination training. It also bans chokeholds, bans no-knock warrants in federal cases, and requires police to try de-escalation techniques before using deadly force. And here's the biggest impact: it changes the law which decides if an officer's use of force was justified. Instead of trying to figure out if it was "reasonable" there would be a higher standard of if it was "necessary." That means to be justified deadly force has to be the only option the officer had to protect themselves or someone else.
The bill cleared the House last year but never gained traction in the Senate.
So today we reached out to your senators - Thom Tillis and Richard Burr - to see how they feel.Burr hasn't gotten back to us, but Senator Tillis's spokesperson did write us:
"He hopes both parties can work in good faith to find consensus on reforms that will improve community-police relations and ensure local law enforcement has the resources, training, and support needed to perform their duties responsibly and effectively."
Digging deeper UNCG political science professor Thom Little says most republicans will oppose the bill.
"A lot of them look and say are we tying the hands of police officers and making it harder for them to do their job and harder to keep Americans safe?" Little said.
So Republicans put out their own police reform bill last year called the Justice Act. It does a lot of the same stuff as the Democrats' George Floyd Act, but the Republican version does not toughen up the standard to make use of force necessary instead of reasonable. So both sides agree that some change has to happen, but for almost a year both these bills have stalled in the Senate. Is there any way to compromise and merge the two together in DC?
"That's what I'm wondering if this situation moved the needle enough that there might be a place for compromise," Little said. "So it's possible, but I'm afraid at the national level, particularly looking at 2022, the districts are becoming more and more polarized. So there is not a lot of incentive to cross that aisle. So my fear is we've gotten to the point that even when there is an opportunity for compromise, both sides will tend to run to their ideological corner."
Frustrating right? No matter if you're Republican, Democrat, or unaffiliated partisan gridlock has got to tick you off. But Little says there is one important step you can take to fix it.
"Go out and get people to vote," he said. "That's where the next step has got to be. you continue to march but you gotta get people to the ballot box."