Momentum for Police Reform appears stalled four years after the death of George Floyd drew national attention and call for change. Last week, Democratic members of Congress as well as family members of George Floyd and the family of many others killed at the hands of police call for renewed support and action for national police reform.
“Change is needed,” Philonise Floyd, George Floyd’s brother, said at a news conference Thursday where democratic lawmakers announced their latest effort to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee reintroduced the bill on Thursday, days before the fourth anniversary of Floyd’s murder. It calls for law enforcement to be held “accountable for misconduct in court,” and police training and policy reforms.
The Biden Administration reiterated its desire on May 24 for Congress to take action on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which was introduced in 2021 in an attempt to address aggressive actions from law enforcement officers, misconduct and racial bias.
Though earlier versions passed the Democrat-controlled House in 2020 and 2021, the bill is almost certain not to pass this year, given that Republicans now hold the House. The bill stalled in the Senate both times it passed.
There have been killings by police in the years since Floyd’s death, including in early 2023 when Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, died in Tennessee. Not long after, South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott gave a speech faulting Democrats and politics for a lack of progress.
Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, was the lead GOP negotiator on police reform and had authored a bill of his own after Floyd’s death that was blocked by Senate Democrats at a time when many in their party supported a farther-reaching effort of their own.
“I hope that when the dust settles, and the issue is no longer on the front pages of our newspapers, no longer streaming across our TVs and our iPads and our computers, that we do something that says to the American people, we see your pain, we are willing to put our partisan labels and shirts and uniforms on the side, so that we can do what needs to be done,” Scott said in his speech last year.
Less than a year and a half later, Scott is viewed as a potential running mate for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and refused to be interviewed for an article on police reform with M<M>MM>M.
Since then, attention on the issue in Congress has waned considerably. Republicans, in an attempt to portray themselves as the party of law and order, have continued to try and associate Democrats with the politically volatile “defund the police” slogan that was prominent after Floyd was killed, even though most congressional Democrats do not support that movement.
Phillip Atiba Solomon, a co-founder of the Center for Policing Equality and the chair of African American Studies and professor of psychology at Yale University notes how the trajectory of reform follows cycles of backlash and the current backlash to Floyd’s murder is no exception.
“There was great appetite for the changes of scale and scope of the problem in 2020—that appetite died in 2020,” Solomon said. “If we’re looking for progress on any segment of justice, including reform, it should always be seen through the context of cycles of backlash.”
His comments seemed to indicate the cycle of backlash for police reform appears to have subsided and sadly it may take another “George Floyd Moment” to give the issue energy again.
Other Approaches to Police Reform
Another bill focused on police reform, The People’s Response Act, was introduced by Rep. Cori Bush in 2023. That bill is being supported by The Movement for Black Lives, a national coalition of over 150 leaders and organizations. According to a one-pager published by Bush’s office, the bill is focused on an “inclusive, holistic, and health-centered approach to public safety.”
That bill, experts warn, is expected to face resistance from both Republicans and more centrist Democrats despite its relatively modest aims.
Though the bill was also supported by Black Lives Matter in 2023, Cicely Gay, the Board Chairwoman of Black Lives Matter expressed concern that while legislation aimed at reform stalls, families are left to express their frustration at the slow progress of justice. “Our position is that reform is not enough,” Gay said, before adding that incremental reform is insufficient for grieving families. “We hear firsthand from many families about not only what they experienced, but the lack of progress, and in making policy change.”
Leaders of the Fraternal Order of Police say change has happened at local levels.
“There’s a perception that [because] Congress didn’t pass a reform bill, that somehow there’s not reform across this country,” Fraternal Order of Police President Patrick Yoes said. “I don’t think that’s really the case. Each one of these local jurisdictions engage in discussions with the people involved, in finding ways to improve the criminal justice system.”
But for Floyd’s family, congressional inaction stings, even as Biden and other Democrats have continued to call for reform to become law.
That doesn’t mean they fault Biden however as he runs for re-election this fall.
“I do feel 100% comfortable saying that the Biden administration has done what they could do,” Keeta Floyd, George’s sister-in-law, said.
