LWVUS Urges Senate to Oppose DC Police Reform Disapproval Resolution

The League of Women Voters of the United States joined a sign-on letter to the Senate urging them to oppose a resolution disapproving of the DC Council's passage of policing and justice reform legislation. The letter expressed the way in which DC disapproval resolutions contradict DC statehood, and that this one in particular undermines police and criminal reform efforts.

May 12, 2023

The Honorable Chuck Schumer

Senate Majority Leader

S-230, The Capitol

Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Mitch McConnell

Senate Minority Leader

317 Russell Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

Dear Majority Leader Schumer and Minority Leader McConnell,

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the undersigned organizations, we write to express our strong opposition to H.J. Res. 42, the resolution disapproving of the D.C. Council’s passage of the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act (CPJRAA) of 2022.

This resolution is another in a long line of attacks on democracy in the District of Columbia. D.C. citizens pay federal taxes and comply with all the other duties of citizenship, yet they are deprived of not only any voting representation in Congress, but also of control over their own local governance. With this vote, Congress would yet again micromanage the affairs of the District and relegate the more than 700,000 residents of D.C. to second-class citizenship — and without a single vote representing D.C.

D.C. autonomy and D.C. statehood are civil rights and racial justice issues. D.C. residents deserve the same right as any other citizens to decide the laws that are best for their community. It remains painfully clear that the right to vote is meaningless if the will of D.C. residents can be overturned by a Congress that gives them no say in the matter. The Congress must listen to Mayor Bowser and the D.C. Council and reject this attempt to roll back duly passed D.C. legislation.

Washingtonians are best situated to address police reform policies in their own community and deserve to determine these policies without congressional interference. The CPJRAA includes commonsense reforms to increase police accountability and government transparency, and it directly responds to the calls from District communities for additional law enforcement oversight. Many of the reforms in this bill echo provisions in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, as well as President Biden’s and President Trump’ s executive orders on policing — including limiting chokeholds, improving access to body-worn camera recordings, restricting access to military-grade weapons, and creating a public discipline database of information related to sustained allegations of police misconduct. D.C., like many other jurisdictions, initially passed these reforms in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the need to enact systemic police reform. In the wake of the murder of Tyre Nichols and other instances of police brutality, Congress must not block D.C. from heeding the calls of its residents and enacting police oversight legislation.

Legislation like this is not anti-police, but rather increases public confidence in law enforcement both by deterring abuses of power and demonstrating that law enforcement is not above the law. Holding police officers accountable for violating the law does not lead to an increase in crime. In fact, it may help bolster public safety: Between 2010 and 2020, Washington, D.C. paid out more than $91 million in police misconduct settlements. Yet, according to an audit, between 2015 and 2021, D.C. was forced to rehire 37 Metropolitan Police Department officers who were fired due to sustained misconduct allegations, with the city awarding them more than $14.3 million in back pay. Police oversight is crucial to preventing and holding officers accountable for misconduct against the very people they have sworn to protect.

This resolution and other attacks on D.C.’s autonomy are emblematic of larger efforts to allow state and federal legislatures to exert control and authority over Black localities and roll back democratically authorized criminal-legal and police reforms. We call on you to fight this trend and vote NO on this disapproval resolution. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Chloé White, senior policy counsel, justice, at [email protected].

Sincerely,

See Attached Letter for Signatories