Commercial Appeal - Cohen refiles deadly-force legislation

News Article

By Michael Collins

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen has refiled legislation to require law enforcement agencies to report detailed information on police use of deadly force to a national database.

The bill, filed Tuesday and called the National Statistics on Deadly Force Transparency Act, would close a loophole in federal law that Cohen says prevents the adequate collection of comprehensive national data regarding justified and unjustified fatal interactions with police.

"Before we can truly address the problem of excessive force used by law enforcement, we have to understand the nature of the problem, and that begins with accurate data," said Cohen, a Memphis Democrat. "I am introducing this bill so that our country can do a better job of honestly assessing racial disparities and other problems in our justice system and begin to fix them. It is a step in the right direction and a critical component of the healing process."

The bill would close a loophole in the 1994 Crime Bill that doesn't enforce or adequately define "excessive force." As a result, the federal government has been unable to gather data from many local police departments, and there are no reliable statistics on how often law enforcement uses deadly force.

Under Cohen's bill, the national database would receive demographic characteristics of both the victim and officer, an explanation of the reason for deadly force, a copy of each law enforcement entity's deadly force guidelines and descriptions of nondeadly force used before deadly force is administered.

Cohen filed a similar bill shortly before the conclusion of the last congressional session.

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