Pocan Wants Uniform National Police Standards

George Floyd Protest March. Photo taken June 1st, 2020 by Graham Kilmer.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Black Earth) announced on Friday that he is introducing a bill called the Police Training and Accountability Act, to establish national training standards for all law-enforcement officers, as well as a civilian-law enforcement bill of rights. Under the proposed legislation, a civilian commission would set standards of training for police, which, Pocan pointed out, lack uniformity across the country.

“There’s a common standard across the country to be a truck driver, but we don’t have that when it comes to being a police officer,” Pocan said in a call with reporters on Wednesday.  “I think anywhere you are in the country, you should expect the same treatment and rules applying to police officers and we don’t have anything close to that right now in this country.”

Pocan drafted the bill in response to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers and the protests around the nation that followed, some of which involved further repressive tactics by police.

“Federal dollars should not go to police that communities simply do not trust,” Pocan said in a statement. “From de-escalation to use of lethal force, police nationwide must meet new standards before they receive additional funding from the federal government.”

The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program (Byrne JAG), is the largest source of federal funds for state and local law enforcement agencies, with $547.2 million appropriated for the program in FY2020, according to Pocan’s office.

The standards and training requirements to be created by a civilian commission under Pocan’s bill would include

• a minimum level of education attainment and training hours
• standards for use of force and use of lethal force
• implicit bias
• conflict resolution
• mediation and de-escalation practices
• Pursuit practices
• video technology
• stop and search procedures
• intervention programs

Departments would have to show compliance in all areas to receive federal funds, in addition to adhering to a civilian bill of rights.

“Police brutality has gone on for all too long, it’s been too widespread and we are probably not going to solve this with a single bill or a single answer,” Pocan said. “ This is a systematic problem that we need to address — from the roots of racism to the very real problems of violence from police.”

A good starting point, he added, is a uniform set of nationwide policing standards.

“From Florida to Washington, Maine to California, there should be a common standard for law enforcement,” Pocan said in his statement announcing the bill. “We cannot continue to fund new initiatives for police departments to improve while the same systemic problems continue.”

Reprinted with permission of Wisconsin Examiner.