I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Wednesday, April 21st.

Now that former police officer Derek Shelvin is officially the convicted murderer of George Floyd. Some of the focus for

systemic change will be on Washington with what's called the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of

2021. Reading from the bill's official page on the website of the House of Representatives,

the bill, quote, includes measures to increase accountability for law enforcement

misconduct, to enhance transparency and data collection, we'll talk about data collection, and to

eliminate discriminatory policing practices. The bill, it says, facilitates federal enforcement

of constitutional violations, for example, excessive use of force by state and local

law enforcement. That's a key federal enforcement of excessive use of force in local police

departments. And among other things, the bill says it would do the following. Lower the criminal

intent standard from willful to knowing or reckless to convict a law enforcement

officer for misconduct in a federal prosecution.

Authorized the Department of Justice to issue subpoenas in investigations of police departments

for a pattern or practice of discrimination.

That's very relevant with the breaking

news just this hour that the U.S. Justice Department is going to investigate the Minneapolis

Police Department beyond Derek Sheldon for patterns and practices of discrimination.

And the bill also creates a national registry, the national police misconduct

registry to compile data on complaints and records of police misconduct. And it establishes a

framework to prohibit racial profiling at the federal, state, and local levels, as well as

establishing new requirements for law enforcement officers, state, and local levels, as well as establishing new requirements for

law enforcement officers and agencies. Here's the data part, to report data on use of force

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