In response to both the outcry for police reforms in the wake of the death of George Floyd and a Democratic police reform bill introduced last week, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott announced on Wednesday (June 17) a Republican proposal to address improving police accountability, transparency and community relations.
The legislation, dubbed the JUSTICE Act, aims at ending police chokeholds, increasing the use of body cameras and better training for police officers along with making lynching a federal crime and the maintenance and sharing of disciplinary records of officers.
RELATED: Click here to read the full text of the JUSTICE Act
The 106-page plan is intended to rebuild what’s been called by Scott “lost trust” between police and the community and he says that the legislation was actually driven by some of the things he liked in the bill introduced by congressional Democrats last week including requiring law enforcement agencies to report use of force data.
Booker joined others in his party in criticizing the Republican bill as “heavy on gestures and light on real reform,” saying it does not deal with egregious officer misconduct, no-knock warrants, or provide public access to records of police misconduct.
Scott isn’t phased by the criticism and said his bill speaks to preservation of records for officer misconduct.
