Sen. Tim Scott, who expressed doubt about police reform last year amid the Black Lives Matter protests, is now relaying a different sentiment. Discussing the issue with CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday, the South Carolina senator said a “significant number” of his Republican colleagues are now willing to support police reform legislation.

“I think through negotiations and conversations, we are now closer on no-knock warrants and chokeholds,” the Republican said on CBS News’ Face the Nation. "And there's something called Section 10.33 that has to do with getting government equipment from the military for local police. I think we're making progress there, too.”

According to Vox, Scott was responsible for drafting the Justice Act after the death of George Floyd last year.

"The legislation provides long-term solutions focused on police reform, accountability and transparency, while also promoting efforts to find solutions to systemic issues affecting people of color such as education and health disparities," the bill states.

However, the GOP-led police reform bill had failed to get the required 60 votes in the Senate last year as many Democrats voted against the legislation. Democrats, instead, supported the more expansive George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which passed the House before it was blocked by the then-Republican Senate.

Scott said he is now seeing a productive effort to merge the Democrats’ bill with his Justice Act.

“This time, my friends on the left aren’t looking for the issue,” he said on Sunday. “They’re looking for a solution. And the things that I offered last year are more popular this year. That gives me reasons to be hopeful.”

The senator said the two bills share common provisions such as federal funding incentives for departments that ban chokeholds and more grants for body cameras, as well as federally criminalizing lynching. In addition, the legislations create a use-of-force database in the Justice Department, aiming to document and study how police officers use force.

According to Vox, however, the Democrats’ bill also includes a federal ban on chokeholds and no-knock warrants. The more expansive statue also looks to create a national database for police misconduct, aiming to minimize the transfer of officers with bad records. Additionally, the bill strives to prohibit the distribution of some military weaponry to local police departments and to expand the justice department's power to bring charges against departments.

Last year, Scott criticized the weakening of qualified immunity, the policy which makes it difficult to sue police for wrongdoing. Instead of weakening qualified immunity for individual officers, the senator suggested for civil suits to be brought against departments.

“How do we change the culture of policing?” he told Face the Nation. “We do that by making the employer responsible for the actions of the employee. We do that with doctors. We do that with lawyers. We do that in most all of our industries. If we do that in law enforcement, the employer will change the culture. As opposed to having one officer change or not change, we’ll have all officers transforming because the departments are taking on more of that burden.”

Scott, who is the only Black member of the Senate GOP, said his ideas were well-received last week when he met with the family members of victims of police brutality.

According to NBC News, the senator also expressed a more hopeful outlook after Derek Chauvin was found guilty of the murder of Floyd last month.

“I'm confident that the issues that I've been discussing as it relates to making progress on police reform are today — they have more traction than they had last year,” he said.

Face the Nation

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