Maine’s representatives in the U.S. House split their vote on a landmark police reform bill on Wednesday.
The George Floyd Justice In Policing Act aims to increase police accountability and address systemic racism in law enforcement across the country. The bill would ban the use of choke holds and no-knock warrants.
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine’s 1st District voted to pass the measure. In a statement released last night, she said, “we cannot overlook egregious cases of police misconduct and our country’s long history of racial profiling and mistreatment of Black Americans by law enforcement.”
U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine’s 2nd District took issue with a provision in the bill that would end the qualified immunity doctrine for law enforcement, which protects individual officers from being sued.
In a statement released last night, Golden said he would vote against the legislation out of respect for law enforcement. Ending qualified immunity could, “result in unintended consequences for both individual law enforcement officers and the profession as a whole,” he said.
This is the second time the act has been put forward. In 2020, Pingree and Golden both supported the bill, which also included language eliminating qualified immunity for law enforcement.
The bill passed the House 220-212 and will now go to the Senate.