Four years after the killing of George Floyd, police reforms are slow to materialise

By Bianca Flowers and Stephanie Kelly

(Reuters) – Stevante Clark felt a glimmer of hope when 2020 began after the killing of George Floyd.

His own brother, Stephon Clark, was killed by Sacramento police in March 2018 after they fired 20 shots at the young black man in the backyard of his grandparents’ house. Police said they feared he had a gun on him, but it turned out he was only holding a cellphone.

The 22-year-old’s death sparked protests and calls for reform. It also led to a new, stricter use-of-force law in California. However, no comprehensive change occurred at the national level.

So Clark believed that the police killing of Floyd and several other Black Americans in 2020 would finally lead to the substantive criminal justice reform that he and others have been calling for for years.

But while Floyd’s death became a call for racial equality and justice, four years later, the path to comprehensive police reform is fraught with challenges. Momentum has waned and legislative efforts have stalled. Communities, activists and families who have lost loved ones are frustrated by what they perceive as a shift away from police accountability.

“You can’t honor the life and legacy of George Floyd without passing comprehensive policy and legislative changes to prevent George Floyd’s cases,” Clark told Reuters. “I don’t think the Biden administration has been aggressive enough in this crisis – and this is not just a Black struggle, it’s a struggle for everyone. People have become desensitized to police killings.”

Despite the initial wave of demands for change, the federal government’s attempts to implement comprehensive reforms were largely unsuccessful.

On Friday, President Joe Biden said: “I will continue to urge Congress to put on my desk the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which ensures law enforcement accountability.”

A spokesman for Republican Donald Trump’s campaign told Reuters that Trump would take a hard line on immigration and violent crime, and that if re-elected he would “restore law and order.”

GEORGE FLOYD ACT STALLS

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act – originally introduced in 2021 to end aggressive law enforcement tactics, misconduct and racial bias – has repeatedly encountered obstacles in Congress and has so far failed to advance.

Efforts to reach a bipartisan agreement on police reform failed in 2021. Biden blamed Republicans for the failure. Among the issues lawmakers discussed were changes to “qualified immunity” laws that protect police officers from some lawsuits for excessive use of force. Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee reintroduced the bill on Thursday.

Experts say that while criminal justice reform efforts were partly instrumental in the 2020 election cycle, policing is unlikely to be a top issue in the 2024 presidential election.

“Other issues have come to the fore, particularly the conflict in Israel and Palestine, the conflict in Ukraine and the economy,” said Jorge Camacho, policy director of the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School.

Still, this could be one reason why Biden has less support among black voters, Camacho says, adding that black communities want to see action on policing.

Recent polling data from the nonprofit African American Research Collaborative shows that black communities are now more focused on economic issues such as the cost of living crisis and jobs.

After Congress failed to pass the George Floyd legislation, Biden signed an executive order in May 2022 that, among other things, created a new national database on police misconduct, required federal police to investigate the use of deadly force or deaths in custody, and banned federal authorities from using chokeholds and “no-knock” entry attempts.

Just one day before Floyd’s death, veteran civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton called on Congress to pass the law.

“The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act fulfills a promise we made four years ago to his family and to every family of a black man or woman killed by police,” he said, adding that it would fulfill “what we have marched, protested and advocated for for decades.”

‘NOT ENOUGH’

One of the biggest changes the Biden administration has made in police reform has been the reversal of a Trump-era policy that restricted the use of settlements to combat police violence, says Rashawn Ray, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Nina Patel, senior policy council at the American Civil Liberties Union, said: “There have been successes in police accountability, but they have been far less influential than we would have liked.”

She added that legislation in states such as Louisiana, Arizona and Georgia makes it more difficult to film police, although footage of passersby often brings cases of brutality to light.

“Our position is that reforms are not enough,” said Cicley Gay, executive director of Black Lives Matter, adding that incremental reforms are not enough. “We are hearing firsthand from many families, not only about their experiences, but also about the lack of progress and policy change.”

The Movement for Black Lives, a national network of more than 150 leaders and organizations, is currently advancing the People’s Response Act, introduced last year by Congresswoman Cori Bush.

The bill focuses on state and local funding for an “inclusive, holistic, health-focused approach” to public safety and is intended to create alternatives to police intervention through the Department of Health.

Experts say the bill is likely to face significant opposition from Republicans and centrist Democrats, but supporters said they would continue to push for it.

“The uprisings around the world have been sparked by such a tragic incident that fits into a pattern of police killings and police violence that our communities have been speaking out about and fighting against for so long,” said Amara Enyia, director of policy and research at the Movement for Black Lives.

“The scope of our work is not just about us. It is part of a larger work of justice that has no end date.”

(Reporting by Bianca Flowers and Stephanie Kelly; additional reporting by Gram Slattery; editing by Aurora Ellis and Kat Stafford)