With Slow Progress On Federal Level, Police Reform Remains Patchwork Across U.S.
January 12, 2023
The guilty verdict for former police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd is a step in the right direction says his family, but the need for comprehensive police reform nationally still remains. Advocates and family members of those killed by police point to the police killings of Black people during and since the Chauvin trial in Brooklyn Center, Minn., Columbus, Ohio, and Elizabeth City, N.C. as examples for the need to continue to hold police accountable for misconduct.
NPR cited Colorado Senate Bill 217 as a model for reform, which imposes wide-ranging new rules on law enforcement agencies and prosecutors handling police use of force cases. It also permanently revokes professional certification for officers who have been found in court to have used inappropriate force, preventing them from being re-hired elsewhere. Howard Henderson, founding director of the Center for Justice Research at Texas Southern University, that state the "ground zero" for police reform.