[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10134]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              GUN VIOLENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Wisconsin (Ms. Moore) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to associate myself with the 
comments and remarks of the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Kelly) with 
regard to being mindful of the deaths from gun violence that plague our 
communities all across the country, and particularly as the summer has 
begun, these deaths will continue.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak today about another kind of gun 
violence that makes our streets and homes unsafe, and that is the 
deadly encounters between civilians and police officers.
  Mr. Speaker, I have wracked my brain trying to understand these 
deaths. I have grieved with the mothers who have lost their children. I 
have met with experts and attended roundtables on how to find a way to 
mitigate these fatal police encounters.
  Let me tell you, I think I can propose a solution that we can all 
support, and that is H.R. 3060, the Preventing Tragedies Between Police 
and Communities Act, which would link law enforcement training on 
deescalation techniques to receipt of Federal Byrne JAG funds.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, I certainly wish that I could take full credit for 
this concept because I think that this legislation would both save 
civilian lives and police lives; however, this idea is rooted in the 
Police Executive Research Forum report which both Republicans and 
Democrats have cited. It was written by police officer peers and by 
police officer experts.
  Mr. Speaker, what they found is that police academies require 58 
hours of training on how to use a firearm and another 49 hours on other 
defensive tactics. While they don't require, they offer 8 voluntary--1, 
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8--8 voluntary hours on how to employ deescalation 
tactics in crisis intervention. We need to require this deescalation 
training.
  This deescalation training curriculum would be to use verbal and 
physical tactics to avoid escalating the situation, use the lowest 
level of force as possible and a safe response to identified threats, 
and be aware of mental health and substance abuse issues and crisis 
intervention strategies in order to appropriately respond. This 
training would provide police with the tools they need to prevent 
violent interactions and save not only their lives, but the lives of 
civilians, too.
  We know that kids are out of school and that the tensions in our 
streets are high. Police are on alert, and far too many of us are 
distrustful of the police due to the painful and frightful memories of 
how many deadly encounters have dominated headlines--close to 1,000 in 
1 year.
  How can this Congress recess for the summer and not take up this 
bill? Yes, the Affordable Care Act is a big issue here before us in 
Congress, but if you live in communities of color around the country, 
the immediate healthcare issue for you is being shot by a police 
officer who has been sworn to protect you.

                              {time}  1030

  If you die at age 12, like Tamir Rice, who was shot by police for 
playing with his sister on a playground in Cleveland, how can you be 
concerned with Medicaid?
  If you are killed at 31 years old, like Dontre Hamilton, who was shot 
14 times by police for resting on a park bench in Milwaukee, nursing 
home care is not your priority. You won't have the good fortune of 
living that long.
  I ask my colleagues to prioritize preserving lives by supporting this 
legislation.

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