Committee Democrats Vote Against Republican Effort to Roll Back D.C.’s Commonsense Police Accountability Reforms

Mar 29, 2023
Press Release
Committee Republicans Vote to Block D.C.’s Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act

Washington, D.C. (March 29, 2023)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton led Committee Democrats in opposing efforts to strike down the District of Columbia Council’s passage of the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act. 

 

“The police union is upset because they want to be able to bargain to get people reinstated who’ve been convicted of crimes, including child sexual abuse or sexual assault, and this is what our colleagues are being carried away with,” said Ranking Member Raskin in his opening statement.

 

“Members who vote in favor of this disapproval resolution are choosing to substitute their policy judgment for the judgment of D.C.’s duly elected representatives.  They will choose to govern D.C. without its consent,” said Congresswoman Holmes Norton in her opening statement.  “I can only conclude that this Committee believes that D.C. residents, a majority of whom are Black and Brown, are either unworthy or incapable of governing themselves.  D.C. voters are not children.  They do not need protection from the decisions of their duly elected representatives by members of Congress from Kentucky, Georgia or anywhere else.”

 

Ensuring the Independence of the District of Columbia 

 

Committee Republicans’ disapproval resolution would block D.C.’s commonsense police accountability and transparency legislation, the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022, which was passed twice by the D.C. Council in December 2022.  Committee Democrats support the will of D.C. voters’ right to local legislative control and opposed the resolution.

 

D.C.’s Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act includes many of the reforms addressed by House Democrats’ George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which passed the House in the 116th and 117th Congresses.  The reforms include measures that would:

 

  • Prohibit the use of chokeholds and asphyxiating restraints;
  • Require public release of the names and body-worn camera recordings of officers directly involved in an officer-involved death or serious use of force within five days after the incident;
  • Require officers to exhaust all reasonable alternatives before using deadly force;
  • Strengthen civilian oversight of police;
  • Establish a public database of sustained allegations of officer misconduct;
  • Make officer disciplinary records subject to release under the D.C. Freedom of Information Act;
  • Increase accountability by removing officer disciplinary matters from collective bargaining;
  • Restrict dangerous vehicular pursuits by officers;
  • Prohibit D.C. police from acquiring military-grade weaponry from the federal government;
  • Require officers to inform a person of the right to refuse to consent to a search; and
  • Prohibit the hiring of officers with prior misconduct. 

 

In voting against Committee Republicans’ resolution, Democrats underscored the importance of D.C.’s police accountability and transparency reforms and advocated for residents’ right to political self-determination through statehood. 

 

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Issues: 
118th Congress