[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 87 (Tuesday, June 2, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3457-S3458]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. BOXER (for herself and Mr. Booker):
  S. 1476. A bill to require States to report to the Attorney General 
certain information regarding shooting incidents involving law 
enforcement officers, and for other purposes; to the Committee on the 
Judiciary.
  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I am proud to join with Senator Boxer to 
introduce the Police Reporting of Information, Data, and Evidence Act 
of 2015, PRIDE Act, a critical data collection bill designed to advance 
public safety, strengthen police-community relations, and foster mutual 
trust and respect. I thank Senator Boxer for her leadership on this 
issue.
  A critical issue in our Nation today is the issue of trust between 
law enforcement and the communities they serve. Tragic events across 
the country--in New York, Ferguson, North Charleston, Baltimore, and 
subsequent protests--remind us how critical trust is to the fabric of a 
democracy. These incidents raised the public's awareness and sparked a 
national debate about how police and citizens interact and how they 
should interact. But the issue is not unique now. The Kerner 
Commission's 1968 report on urban violence declared that minorities 
believed a ``double standard'' of justice and protection existed for 
whites and blacks. Sadly, that distrust continues today. It is contrary 
to who we are and what we stand for.
  Our nation was founded on shared and timeless values. Liberty and 
justice for all. Equal justice under law. The former was enshrined in 
our founding charter. The latter was written on the marble of Supreme 
Court. But when any American feels that they have not been treated 
fairly, we undermine those values. That makes the issue of police and 
community relations a problem for all of us--not just a specific city 
or a specific race. It is a problem for the Nation as a whole. We must 
do all we can to restore justice to our criminal justice system. That 
includes tracking when officers use deadly or serious force against 
people in the community.
  We must ensure that police officers feel respected and honored. Each 
day, law enforcement officers put their lives on the line to keep our 
communities safe. They deserve our respect. They should not feel 
attacked or undervalued. They routinely make split-second decisions 
every day that do not escalate into uses of force. As the senseless 
killings of NYPD Officers Rafael Ramos and Wanjian Liu remind us, 
officers often serve the public at considerable personal risk. We 
should provide them with the tools they need to do their jobs 
effectively and safely. That includes tracking the uses of force by 
civilians against our men and women in uniform.
  To bridge the wide trust gap between law enforcement and citizens, we 
must shine a light on the problem. The first step to solve any problem 
is to be honest about the facts. We need objective data. We need to 
study trends. We need to examine the evidence. That is why I am 
encouraged by the words of FBI Director, James Comey, who said ``We 
simply must find ways to see each other more clearly. Part of that has 
to involve collecting and sharing better

[[Page S3458]]

information about encounters between police and citizens, especially 
violent encounters.''
  For too long, the way we have collected information and data from 
States and local governments on violent encounters between law 
enforcement and civilians has been inconsistent. Under current law, 
demographic data regarding officer-involved shootings is inconsistently 
reported to the FBI under the Uniform Crime Reporting Program. 
According to a study by the Washington Post this month, since 2011, 
less than three percent of the Nation's 18,000 State and local police 
agencies reported fatal shootings by their officers to the FBI. That is 
unacceptable. Incomplete and unreliable reporting makes it tougher to 
get a true scope of the problem and more difficult to obtain a policy 
solution.
  The PRIDE Act would fix that problem and increase accountability for 
law enforcement by creating a comprehensive national data collection 
program. It would require law enforcement at the State, local, and 
tribal levels to report to the Attorney General information regarding 
police-involved shootings and any incident in which use of force by or 
against a law enforcement officer or civilian results in serious injury 
or death. By making the voluntary reporting of uses of force by, and 
against, police officers mandatory, we ensure that more accountability 
and transparency will exist between the police and the citizens they 
protect.
  I have worked closely with Senator Boxer on crafting this 
legislation, and appreciate my friend and colleague welcoming several 
recommendations to strengthen the bill, including clarifications that 
use-of-force policies for law enforcement officers be made publicly 
available. I believe this change would promote transparency. It shines 
a spotlight on the scope of shootings and uses of force involving 
police and civilians, which in turn enhances public confidence in our 
justice system.
  I also appreciate that the bill includes grant funds for public 
awareness campaigns designed to gain information from the public on 
uses of force against police officers. This was a recommendation drawn 
from being a former mayor. I have seen first-hand how helpful tip 
lines, hotlines, and public service announcements can be in helping law 
enforcement capture dangerous people. When someone uses violence 
against our men and women in uniform, we must respond quickly. That 
means we should do all that we can to ensure that information on the 
suspect gets out to the public in a timely manner. That way, the 
offender can promptly be caught and brought to justice.
  Lastly, I recommended the bill include grant funds for use of force 
training for law enforcement agencies and personnel, including de-
escalation training. Officers deserve to receive the best and most up 
to date training we can offer. They must feel confident that they are 
trained to use force in a way that allows them to safely come home to 
their families. Equally, the public deserves to have confidence that 
when an officer uses force he or she does so appropriately. That means 
training officers to ensure that force is a last resort and officers 
know how to de-escalate a situation to avoid using force at all.
  Many of the bill's provisions were recommendations from the 
President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing. It put forth a series 
of recommendations aimed at rebuilding trust between the law 
enforcement officers and the communities they protect. Its 
recommendations included use of force data collection, de-escalation 
training, transparency, and officer safety measures. I am glad that 
many of the task force recommendations were included in this bill.
  It is time we address the plague of shootings by and against police 
officers in our country. We must come together to ensure that we do see 
each other clearly and restore public confidence in our system of 
justice. The first step is to shine a light on the problem and collect 
accurate data. I thank Senator Boxer again for her leadership, and I 
urge my colleagues to support the PRIDE Act and work towards its speedy 
passage.
                                 ______