5 Problematic Police Reform Bills

Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota on April 11, 2021 [AFP/ Kerem Yucel]

By Samantha Grasso

After the highly publicized deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery last year, state and city leaders pushed for new police reform legislation. In doing so, though, they’re repeating the same old tired pattern: trying to fix the police by passing the same old ineffectual reforms. 

President Biden is no exception. Last week, Biden called upon Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act by May 25, the anniversary of Floyd’s death. But, as organizers and writers have pointed out, there are some major issues with this bill.

The act would give millions in grants to police for various reform efforts, but an increase in funding for exhausted reforms doesn’t do anything to directly assist people who have few options without such assistance, as writer and lawyer Derecka Purnell wrote for The Guardian earlier this year. Simply put, this act and its various fixes would have done nothing to save Floyd’s life.

“Congress banned one practice, and not even the one responsible for [Floyd’s] homicide,” Purnell wrote about the bill’s ban on the use of chokeholds, but not on police kneeling on the necks of people. “[They’ve] had several opportunities to give people what they actually need under the pandemic: money,” she continued, noting that Floyd’s alleged crime was paying with a counterfeit bill. “But instead, Congress does what it always does when the police kill people: give cops more money.”

This federal act isn’t the only one of its kind.

Politicians passed several police reform bills at the state level last year that contain widely discredited fixes like chokehold bans, bodycam mandates and implicit bias training. Some legislation even proactively shields cops from accountability. 

Here are five examples of bills that, while ostensibly designed to hold police accountable, continue to lavishly fund an institution that many argue just needs to be scaled back. 

Colorado: “Enhance Law Enforcement Integrity” Act

• Introduced on June 3 and signed into law just over two weeks later

• Bans chokeholds, requires all law enforcement to wear bodycams

• Requires a person to present an “imminent threat” to police or others for police to use lethal force, as a last resort

• Bans lethal force against someone only suspected of a minor/nonviolent offense

• Gives $617,478 to the Colorado state patrol to facilitate this law and more

Massachusetts': "Justice, Equity and Accountability in Law Enforcement" Act

• Introduced on Nov. 30 and signed into law Dec. 31

• Created a commission for training, decertifying and suspending certification for police

• Banned chokeholds but clarified when police can use lethal force and weapons

• Created a “body camera task force” that will allow police to buy bodycam-related goods and services

• Re-designated a training fund for the commission to spend on trainings for police

Delaware: House Bill 350

• Introduced on June 17 and signed into law on Aug. 13

• Banned the use of chokeholds by police except where the officer believes lethal force is necessary to protect another person or an officer

Iowa: House Bill 2647

• Introduced on June 11 and signed into law the following day

• Allows the attorney general to investigate and prosecute police who kill someone regardless of whether the county attorney asked the AG for assistance

• Banned chokeholds except when someone “cannot be captured” otherwise, and the person has threatened deadly force, or the officer believes they would use deadly force

• Protects officers who use force while carrying out an invalid warrant, unless they know it’s invalid

• Allows the Iowa law enforcement council to screen police applicants from out of state for past misconduct

Vermont: Senate Bill 219

• Originally introduced on Jan. 7, 2020, signed into law on July 13

• Allows state grants to be withheld from law enforcement if they’ve failed to report their race data on roadside stops

• Sets the max penalty for an officer who kills someone with a chokehold to 20 years in prison and a $50,000 fine

• Mandated bodycams for all police officers to be purchased by the Vermont Department of Public Safety and additionally funded by the department budget from the following year

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