Senate Democrats Unveil Police Accountability Legislation After The Killing Of Sonya Massey

Senate Democrats are pushing for police reform legislation following the fatal shooting of Sonya Massey, a Black woman killed by a deputy in Springfield, Illinois, earlier this month.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.)) reintroduced the Police Training and Independent Review Act on Tuesday — a bill that would use grants to incentivize states to improve law enforcement training and hold independent investigations when police kill citizens.

A dozen democrats co-sponsored Duckworth’s bill. It also garnered support from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Duckworth first introduced the legislation in 2017, citing unrest that took place in Ferguson following the killing of Michael Brown in 2014. The senator reintroduced the legislation again in 2019 and then another time in 2021, following the murder of George Floyd and the conviction of former Minneapolis Police Department Officer Derek Chauvin.

“I felt there was an issue with police departments not having the proper training, but also the same justice department that would review the misconduct...were the same people who would depend on that particular police district to help them win their cases,” Duckworth told HuffPost. “We cannot continue to bear witness to tragic preventable and common deaths in particular black men and women at the hands of Black men and women. And we saw in Sonya Massey’s case that this is still ongoing.”

Police in America fatally shoot at least 1,000 people a year, according to a police shooting database from The Washington Post.

Massey’s death has caused outrage around the country.

On July 6, two deputies of the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office responded to Massey’s home in Springfield, Illinois, after Massey