Republican Senator Tim Scott Explains The 3 Police Reforms America Needs

On Sunday, Republican Tim Scott appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” where the South Carolina senator explained that there are three major police reforms he would like to see that he believes Congress can reach bipartisan agreement on.

Sen. Tim Scott Lays Out Three Major Police Reforms He Believes the Country Needs

“Well, there are three major parts of it: we have to have all the information. Today, only 40 percent of law enforcement departments are actually providing information to the DOJ,” Scott explained to host Margaret Brennan. “We need 100 percent as related to serious bodily injury and death.”

“When the officer uses force, we need to have all the information,” Scott said. “I’ve been working on this, Margaret, for five years.”

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“A second thing we have to do is look at training and tactics,” he continued. “If we do that, we can certainly deescalate the situation and make sure that the officer and the suspect go home.”

For part three, Scott said, “And the third part of it is officer misconduct. If we can drill into officer misconduct, we do it on the local level, House has been talking about doing it on the state level, the president’s executive order talks about doing it on a national level.”

 

Sen. Scott on ‘Qualified Immunity’

Brennan also asked Scott what he thought of ending “qualified immunity,” which protects police officers from civil suits, an idea Democrats have pushed for.

“Well, there are two ways that you can deal with that,” Scott responded. “From the Republican perspective – and the president sent the signal that qualified immunity is off the table. They see that as a poison pill on our side – we could use a decertification of [the] officer, except the law enforcement unions say that’s a poison pill.”

“We’re going to have to find a path that helps us reduce misconduct within the officers but, at the same time we know any poison pill in legislation means we get nothing done,” Scott said. “That sends a wrong signal, perhaps the worst signal, right now in America.”

Scott added, “I think we’re going to have legislation that can be negotiated that gets us to the place where something becomes law that actually makes a difference. That’s got to be the goal.”

 

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After the clip that was posted on Twitter was cut short, “Face the Nation” shared a full transcript of Scott’s comments, including his thoughts about potential bipartisanship on police reform issues.