Democrats introduce police reform bill banning chokeholds and making it easier to sue officers

House Democrats introduced a bill that, if passed, would make it easier to sue police officers for misconduct in civil court and to prosecute them for criminal behavior. It would also ban the use of chokeholds and allow the DOJ's civil rights division to subpoena local police departments. 

The legislation also requires the use of body cameras, which are already widely mandated widely throughout police departments. Additionally, the bill, whose lead sponsors include Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Rep. Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles), suggests creating a national database recording the names of police officers with a history of abuse. 

House and Senate Democrats met in the Capitol's Emancipation Hall for eight minutes and forty-six seconds of silence this morning before introducing the new legislation. 

Absent from the bill are any references to "defunding the police," a line that has now caught on among circles on the left and right. Police department funding decisions are largely made at the state and local levels, and will likely not be addressed at a federal level. 

Without meaningful Republican support for the bill in the Senate, it is unlikely that the legislation will make it to the desk of the president.

The Democrats' bill comes after two weeks of protests across the nation in the wake of the death of George Floyd while he was in police custody on Memorial Day. Officer Derek Chauvin, who was seen on video kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes, has been charged with second-degree murder, and the three police officers who stood beside him have been charged with aiding and abetting a murder.