WHEREAS, Police use of force is among the leading causes of death for young men of color; and

WHEREAS, Black people, including Black women and girls, Native Americans and Latinos are killed by police at disproportionately higher rates than their White peers; and

WHEREAS, Police brutality and the use of excessive force have robbed countless communities of precious lives, inflicted intergenerational harm and trauma to families and intensified our Nation's mental health crisis; and

WHEREAS, The killings of hundreds each year, and the demonstrations that followed, have brought sustained national attention to the racially biased police violence against people; and

WHEREAS, The conduct of police officers who engage in racial profiling and excessive force, which can include shootings, brutal beatings, fatal chokings and any other excessive treatment, is a violation of federal and state constitutional law; and

WHEREAS, The rule of law within our Nation is undermined when police officers engage in conduct that is inconsistent with federal and state constitutional law; and

WHEREAS, The Legislature of the State of Kansas has a moral and constitutional obligation to protect the civil rights and liberties of all people within the State of Kansas from police abuses:

Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of Kansas, the Senate concurring therein: That we support strengthening efforts to eliminate instances of excessive use of force, to conduct stringent oversight and independent investigations into instances of police brutality, racial profiling and excessive use of force, and to hold individual law enforcement officers and police departments accountable, including:

(a) Calling on the United States Department of Justice to:

(1) Reinstitute its role in investigating police departments that violate civil rights and individual instances of police brutality, violence and racial profiling; and

(2) take on a role in filing briefs urging courts to reconsider decisions that permit unreasonable and excessive police practices and establish meaningful oversight of consent decrees; and

(b) establishing independent all-civilian review boards with the authority to effectively investigate incidents of police misconduct to ensure meaningful community-level oversight, transparency, accountability and discipline of police officers; and

Be it further resolved: That we call for the adoption of sound and unbiased law enforcement policies at all levels of government that reduce the disparate impact of police brutality and use of force on Black and Brown people and other historically marginalized communities; and

Be it further resolved: That the Secretary of State shall send an enrolled copy of this resolution to Representative Xu.