Police reform talks fall apart after months of bipartisan negotiations in Congress

Police reform talks in Congress have fallen apart, as lawmakers could not strike a bipartisan deal despite the loudest calls in years to root out law enforcement violence against Black Americans.

“After months of exhausting every possible pathway to a bipartisan deal, it remains out of reach right now, even after working collaboratively with and securing the support of policing groups like the Fraternal Order of Police and International Association of Chiefs of Police for our proposals,” Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat who joined in reform talks for months, said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, even with this law enforcement support and further compromises we offered, there was still too wide a gulf with our negotiating partners and we faced significant obstacles to securing a bipartisan deal,” he continued.

The collapse of the talks ends the last major effort to change federal police standards that had a chance to get through Congress with support from both parties. It is unclear now whether lawmakers can spark another reform effort more than a year after a national reckoning over police killings of Black Americans including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.