Democrats’ sweeping new police reform bill, explained

House and Senate Democrats unveiled a new policing reform bill on Monday in the wake of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of a now-former Minneapolis police officer and the weeks of protests against police brutality that followed.

The Justice in Policing Act of 2020 contains a number of measures that make it easier to prosecute police misconduct and demilitarize police departments around the country.

The bill’s biggest provision seeks to end qualified immunity, a thorny legal issue that gives police officers and other public officials broad immunity from civil lawsuits. The US Supreme Court, which has upheld the qualified-immunity doctrine in past rulings, is currently deciding whether to hear arguments next term in a case challenging qualified immunity.

The legislation also incorporates a proposal from Sen. Cory Booker that would create a new national registry to track misconduct as a way to prevent repeat offenders from being rehired at other police departments.

In addition, the bill seeks to ban the use of chokeholds and certain no-knock warrants at the federal level, as well as to incentivize state and local governments to do the same. Both tactics have been factors in police killings of unarmed black people: A no-knock warrant used by police in Kentucky in March ended in the death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT who died after officers broke down her door without warning and fatally shot her.

“We cannot settle for anything less than transformative structural change,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Monday. “The martyrdom of George Floyd gave the American experience a moment of national anguish. … True justice can only be achieved with full comprehensive action. That’s what we are doing today.”

Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) unveiled the bill alongside leaders and members of the Congressional Black Caucus, led by Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA). The Congressional Black Caucus — members of which include prominent African American senators like Booker and Kamala Harris (D-CA) — was instrumental in writing the bill.