Pascrell: American policing needs to change. Here’s how Congress can help

PATERSON, NJ – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) today published an article in the North Jersey (Bergen) Record emphasizing the need for Congress to lead to the charge for national policing reform and outlining Congress’s immediate priorities to achieve change and national healing. The text of the op-ed is provided below.

The murder of George Floyd, and the demonstrations that have sprouted in cities and towns across our country in protest make clear that policing in the United States must change.

Justice for Floyd is essential, and charges against the officers who killed him is only the first step.

Moving our country forward from this traumatic experience will take more. Floyd’s death is yet the latest public illustration of the violence inflicted on African American communities each day by the very people and institutions that should be there to protect them.

Throughout much of my career as a mayor and now in Congress as a leader of the law enforcement caucus, community policing has been perhaps the most useful and productive framework guiding me. Community policing entails officers on the street and in the station house fostering constant dialogue with the citizens they serve. It prioritizes listening, community relationships, trust, and de-escalation and has been a pivotal element in my attempts to build bridges between people and police.

Despite tragic histories of resident-police strife, many New Jersey cities have seen unity and nonviolence as officers took knees and marched alongside protestors. Public safety officials in cities from Oklahoma to Michigan to California handed out bottles of water and laid down their weapons to talk with those Americans they have pledged to serve.

Nevertheless, the brutal death of Floyd, and the deaths of Tamir Rice, Breonna Taylor, and Philando Castile, among many other African Americans shows beyond all doubt that something is badly broken. Community policing alone is not enough and systematic change is demanded.

To achieve this, political leadership must come from the top, which is why the House of Representatives is discussing a broad range of moves. While my colleagues and I continue to evaluate these options with urgency, I support three immediate changes:

Ending racial profiling. This is perhaps the most obviously necessary reform of all. I am proud to cosponsor the End Racial Profiling Act, that would at long last  outlaw racial profiling by all law enforcement — at the federal, state, and local levels. Subjecting the power of the state to an individual solely because of the color of their skin is antithetical to everything our nation professes. No American should ever be stopped by the police because of their race. This change must pass Congress as soon as possible.

Stopping excessive use of force. Floyd died after an officer crushed his neck for nearly nine minutes. The footage of this act has devastated the world in its brutality. Excessive techniques like these have gone unchecked for years. Legislation named in honor of Eric Garner, a New York man who was killed after being subject to similar excessive force would enact a federal ban on the use of chokeholds or any pressure to the neck by law enforcement officers.

Reversing the militarization of police forces. The images of federal soldiers patrolling our nation’s capital sends a chill up my spine and bears more than a whiff of fascism. But the truth is that for decades local police forces have been given military vehicles, weaponry, tactical gear, and other equipment that have transformed countless small-town police forces into outfits that resemble a platoon at war. These displays terrify Americans and lead to abuses. The Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act would prevent the transfer of certain military equipment from the Department of Defense to local law enforcement. Local sheriff’s departments don’t need grenade launchers.

The House on Monday unveiled a package of legislation that includes these and other watershed reforms. This landmark bill, which is sponsored in the Senate by my friend, Sen. Cory Booker, represents the largest law enforcement federal overhaul in generations. I cosponsor it and will support it strongly.

In the meantime, we also need the Senate to pass the anti-lynching federal statute, and the federal government must provide more resources for sensitivity training and independent reviews where excessive force is used. By themselves, these policies won’t heal America’s gaping wounds or end all police misconduct, but they are pivotal measures that will go far to where we need to be as a nation.

There will be fierce resistance to many of these proposals. As the co-head of Congress’s bipartisan law enforcement working group, it is my job to make sure the Congress is supporting public safety. That involves securing dollars for hiring, training, and equipment like cameras to improve community policing. I will work my tail off and use every relationship I have built to convince our law enforcement partners to embrace change that will benefit all of us — especially Black Americans.

Many law enforcement leaders and rank and file officers recognize the gravity of this moment. If trust between communities of color and those sworn to protect them is not achieved now, it may be irreparably broken.

Comprehensive reforms are of momentous importance for North Jersey. In our own district encompassing Bergen, Hudson, and Passaic counties, non-white Americans and black Americans make up more than 40 percent and approximately 10 percent of our total district population, respectively. Their lives bear the costs of nonaction more than any of our neighbors.

Yesterday I spoke to new Paterson police academy graduates entering the force at this critical moment. I reminded them that on their own shoulders they carry the grave responsibility to be more accountable to our diverse communities that they serve and that any progress we now must make will depend on them and their fellow officers.

The enormous demonstrations in our country are the very essence of democracy. No justice long denied can withstand the collective pressure of a nation standing together for change.

Let us use this moment, in the wake of Floyd’s tragic death, and make America a better place for all of our children. Congress can start right now.

Rep. Pascrell is a supporter and cosponsor of the landmark Justice in Policing Act sponsored by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA- 37). Pascrell is also a cosponsor of the Eric Garner Excessive Use of Force Prevention Act (H.R. 4408) that would enact a federal ban on the use of chokeholds or any pressure to the neck by law enforcement, the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act (H.R. 1714), that would prevent the transfer of certain military equipment to local law enforcement, the End Racial Profiling Act (H.R. 4339) that would outlaw racial profiling by any federal, state, or local law enforce, and the Preventing Tragedies Between Police and Communities Act (H.R. 2927) that would require increased training of law enforcement officers on de-escalation techniques.