Democrats’ sweeping new police reform bill, explained

[pppolitics]

House and Senate Democrats unveiled a new policing reform bill on Monday in the wake of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of a now-former Minneapolis police officer and the weeks of protests against police brutality that followed.

The Justice in Policing Act of 2020 contains a number of measures that make it easier to prosecute police misconduct and demilitarize police departments around the country.

The bill’s biggest provision seeks to end qualified immunity, a thorny legal issue that gives police officers and other public officials broad immunity from civil lawsuits. The US Supreme Court, which has upheld the qualified-immunity doctrine in past rulings, is currently deciding whether to hear arguments next term in a case challenging qualified immunity.

The legislation also incorporates a proposal from Sen. Cory Booker that would create a new national registry to track misconduct as a way to prevent repeat offenders from being rehired at other police departments.

[...]

[PragmaticPopulist]

I believe ending qualified immunity is the largest step in the right direction in the bill. If police officers know they can get away with using lethal force all the time, there's no reason that they'll stop doing it.

[Reaganfan]

The "database" thing turns me off because I don't feel the Government should ever keep any data on anybody.

The "qualified immunity" thing will never happen. 100%.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I don't like ending qualified immunity because it accurately reflects well the reality police find themselves in as officers of the law - the police need not be hit with frivolous lawsuits, this will run the risk of degrading the quality of law enforcement and force police departments to choose between enforcing the law and preserving their finances. Qualified immunity is not the problem - the presence of white supremacists, the poisonous race relations in some locales, the continued socio-economic underclass status for many blacks in this country, and other things are the core of the problem.

[dead0man]

any law that allows police to steal things and get away with it with a "what, is that wrong?  Should I not have done that?  I had no idea.  Color me embarrassed!" excuse<---that's a PDF

The panel held that at the time of the incident, there was no clearly established law holding that officers violate the Fourth or Fourteenth Amendment when they steal property seized pursuant to a warrant. For that reason, the City Officers were entitled to qualified immunity.

is a bad law.

[SteveRogers]

I don't like ending qualified immunity because it accurately reflects well the reality police find themselves in as officers of the law - the police need not be hit with frivolous lawsuits, this will run the risk of degrading the quality of law enforcement and force police departments to choose between enforcing the law and preserving their finances. Qualified immunity is not the problem - the presence of white supremacists, the poisonous race relations in some locales, the continued socio-economic underclass status for many blacks in this country, and other things are the core of the problem.

Ending qualified immunity would just put police officers on the same level as other government officials who get sued in federal court for violating constitutional rights. The federal courts are pretty adept at throwing out frivolous lawsuits along those lines.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I don't like ending qualified immunity because it accurately reflects well the reality police find themselves in as officers of the law - the police need not be hit with frivolous lawsuits, this will run the risk of degrading the quality of law enforcement and force police departments to choose between enforcing the law and preserving their finances. Qualified immunity is not the problem - the presence of white supremacists, the poisonous race relations in some locales, the continued socio-economic underclass status for many blacks in this country, and other things are the core of the problem.

Ending qualified immunity would just put police officers on the same level as other government officials who get sued in federal court for violating constitutional rights. The federal courts are pretty adept at throwing out frivolous lawsuits along those lines.

Policing is fundamentally unlike other governmental functions though, and is in fact completely necessary for all of them to be able to continue in operation.