Norton to Introduce Bill to Create Local Task Forces on 21st Century Policing with DOJ Funding
WASHINGTON, D.C.—In the wake of renewed demonstrations and a tragic attack on police officers in Ferguson, MO, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that she will introduce a bill to establish a grant program from existing Department of Justice funds to create local Task Forces on 21st Century Policing modeled after President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, which released its interim report on March 2. The Norton bill, to be introduced when Congress returns next week, seeks to encourage localities to identify the best ways to create an effective partnership between local law enforcement and the communities they serve.
"The President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing's report is full of useful ideas, but policing is fundamentally a local issue under our system of government," Norton said. "To reach solutions for racial profiling and other practices like those exposed by the Department of Justice's investigation of the Ferguson Police Department, local stakeholders in local communities need to sit down and engage in problem-solving together. Local stakeholders are in the best position to use the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing interim report, the DOJ Ferguson report, or any ideas they choose to tailor and fashion their own solutions at the local level. What the federal government can do best is to facilitate reforms in local policing through the grant program my bill will propose."
Norton's idea for the bill arose from a Congressional Caucus on Black Men and Boys roundtable focusing on President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing report. The roundtable featured testimony from Task Force co-chair and Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles "Chuck" Ramsey, along with Howard University Student Government President Leighton Watson.