Governor Henry McMaster and Senator Tim Scott held a press conference Monday afternoon discussing the JUSTICE Act and police reform.
Senator Scott introduced the JUSTICE Act to the U.S. senate last Wednesday, which detailed various reforms focused heavily on accountability for law enforcement personnel and transparency from departments.
“We believe that in order for us to have the type of police reform that leads to safer officers and safer suspects requires as much information as conceivably possible in the same place,” said Senator Scott. “Only about 40% of departments around the country today report information on serious bodily injury and death as it relates to their departments and the use of force.”
McMaster and Senator Scott said that law enforcement policies in South Carolina were used as a point of inspiration when the JUSTICE Act was being drafted.
Some of the major points of the JUSTICE Act as discussed in the press conference were in allocating funding to provide body cameras to law enforcement, improving the training programs of police officers, and potentially requiring more reports from law enforcement with greater detail.
“This nation is our nation. We as a community and police, we have to come together. We can’t do it without the community, and the community can’t do it without us,“ North Charleston Police Chief Reginald Burgess said when speaking on the importance of improving law enforcement. “When I swore my oath in 1989, I raised my hand and I said this: ‘I recognize my badge as a symbol of public trust, and I shall strive to justify that trust.’ And I’ve been trying to do that for 31 years.”