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Representative Jackson Lee
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Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee Press Conference to introduce H.R. 2875, Law Enforcement Trust Integrity Act - July 22, 2015

August 12, 2015

LAW ENFORCEMENT TRUST AND INTEGRITY ACT

SUMMARY

The Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act (HR 2875) takes a comprehensive approach at addressing the issue of police accountability and building trust between police departments and their communities. Drafted in response to outrages like the 1997 Los Angeles Rampart Division perjury scandal and tragedies such as the 1999 Amadou Diallo shooting (and the more recent Rice, Brown, Gray and Garner Killings), the legislation provides incentives for local police organizations to voluntarily adopt performance-based standards to ensure that incidents of misconduct will be minimized through appropriate management, training and oversight protocols and that if such incidents do occur, that they will be properly investigated.

The bill also provides police officers—the vast majority of whom are decent people concerned about their neighborhoods—with the tools necessary to work with their communities and to enhance their professional growth and education.

The Act makes seven concrete steps toward improving law enforcement management and misconduct prosecution tools and was endorsed in the 106th Congress by a broad range of legal, community-based and law enforcement groups nationwide, including: the NAACP; Urban League; LULAC; NCLR; National Asian Pacific Legal Consortium; National Lawyers' Guild; ACLU; NOBLE; National Black Police Association; and the United Methodist Church.

Title I: Law Enforcement Accreditation.

This title requires Attorney General to perform an initial analysis of existing law enforcement accreditation standards and to recommend areas for the development of additional national standards for accreditation of law enforcement agencies in conjunction with law enforcement accreditation organizations, law enforcement associations, labor and community-based organizations. Additionally, the Attorney General will recommend the adoption of uniform standards for greater community law enforcement accountability. Further, it authorizes the Attorney General to make grants to law enforcement agencies for the purpose of obtaining accreditation from certified professional law enforcement accreditation organizations.

Title II: Law Enforcement Development Programs.

This Title authorizes the Attorney General to make grants to States, units of local government, Indian Tribal Governments, or other public and private entities, and multi-jurisdictional or regional consortia to study law enforcement agency management and operations and to develop pilot programs to implement best practices focused on effective training, recruitment, hiring, management and oversight of law enforcement officers, which would also provide focused data for the development of additional accreditation standards.

Title III: Administrative Due Process Procedures.

This Title requires the Attorney General to study the prevalence and impact of any law, rule or procedure that allows a law enforcement officer to delay for an unreasonable or arbitrary period of time the answer to questions posed by a local internal affairs officer, prosecutor, or review board on the investigative integrity and prosecution of law enforcement misconduct.

Title IV: Enhanced Funding To Combat Police Misconduct.

This Title authorizes appropriations for expenses related to criminal and civil enforcement activities by the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, specifying the enforcement against pattern and practice discrimination described in section 210401 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (42 U.S.C.A. 14141); and further authorizes appropriations for expenses related to programs managed by the DOJ Community Relations Service.

Title V: National Task Force on Law Enforcement Oversight.

This provision requires the Department of Justice to establish a task force to coordinate the investigation, prosecution and enforcement efforts of federal, state and local governments in cases related to law enforcement misconduct. It also authorizes appropriations to support task force efforts.

Title VI: Federal Data Collection on Police Practices.

This provision requires each Federal, State, and local law enforcement agency to report to the Attorney General data on the following: 1) traffic violation stops; 2) pedestrian stops and detentions; and 3) the use of deadly force by and against law enforcement officers.

Title VII: Medallions for Fallen Law Enforcement Officers.

This provision requires the Department of Justice, in cooperation with the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, to create and provide a distinctive medallion to be issued to the survivors of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty or memorialized on the National law Enforcement Officers Memorial.