全国都在等待孟菲斯警方公布的人体摄像镜头提尔·尼科尔斯之死在美国国会层面，要求系统性警察改革的呼声再次高涨。
这远不是近年来警察改革第一次成为严肃的政治讨论。乔·拜登总统在竞选中承诺改革警务。自上任以来，他发誓要“签署一项全面而有意义的警察改革法案”
更多:孟菲斯警察局长对将于今天发布的提尔·尼科尔斯的视频感到“震惊”
但是尽管拜登做出了承诺，国会还没有提出任何法案让他签署。这并不是因为缺乏尝试:近年来，国会山已经多次尝试通过警察改革。没有一个是成功的。
这就是为什么最近一些警察改革的尝试失败了。
突出
-虽然警察改革仍然是一些民主党人的雄心壮志，但目前国会没有为改革警务做出重大努力。众议院议长凯文·麦卡锡预计不会采纳民主党可能提出的任何改革措施。
-在2021年谈判失败后，参议院民主党人似乎没有积极就这一主题进行谈判。
-在共和党参议员蒂姆·斯科特(Tim Scott)和民主党参议员科里·布克(John McCain)进行了数月的两党谈判后，最后一次推动警务改革的重大举措于2021年9月在参议院搁置。谈判人员无法摆脱对工会参与或有条件豁免的担忧
-副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯仍在参议院时，领导民主党人阻止了共和党领导的另一项2020年改革警务的努力，认为共和党的法案不够实质性。
布克-斯科特努力失速
2021年4月，前警官德里克·肖万因乔治·弗洛伊德之死被判有罪后，由布克和斯科特领导的两党参议员小组开始制定一项警察改革协议，该协议在经过数月谈判后最终未能达成一致。
这一2021年的推动是国会最近一次试图实施全国范围的警察改革。它产生了一个框架，但从来没有一个法案可以被带到参议院。
除其他外，该框架将为警察部门提供更多资源，这是共和党的一个关键项目，同时授予联邦更多权力，在过度使用武力、性行为不端、盗窃和妨碍司法公正等领域提起不当行为案件，这是民主党的一个重要项目。
但事实证明，布克和斯科特之间存在着不可逾越的分歧，无法解决。谈判开始了夏季的一个主要障碍在两个重要的症结被证明无法克服后，于9月份崩溃。
更多:警务改革谈判在合格豁免权问题上受挫，但谈判者继续努力
第一个问题源于该法案未能解决所谓的有条件豁免，即警官的法律豁免。民主党人坚持通过修改官员面临起诉的标准来结束豁免权保护。共和党人表示，修改这些标准可能会让官员们面临无意义的诉讼。这对双方都是一条红线，谁也不让步。
该框架也因与警察工会的分歧而寿终正寝。一位消息人士告诉ABC新闻，斯科特告诉布克，如果工会能够加入，他将“不会阻碍”该框架。全国警察组织协会最终反对这项立法，并反对这项立法没有被包括在进程早期的会谈中。
综合问题导致立法者2021年9月宣布会谈即将结束。
共和党议案被民主党阻止
卡玛拉·哈里斯当时是一名初级参议员，也是国会在2020年改革警务的另一项努力的代表之一，后来她放弃了自己的席位，加入了拜登的总统竞选。
她和布克领导民主党阻止了斯科特的第一个警务改革法案，正义法案-在乔治·弗洛伊德(George Floyd)和雷夏德·布鲁克斯(Rayshard Brooks)死于警方之手后提出-认为共和党的努力不严肃，不够实质性。
“我们不会通过对《正义法案》进行表决来迎接这一时刻，我们也不能简单地修正这一法案，它是如此陈腐和缺乏实质内容，甚至没有为谈判提供一个适当的基线。哈里斯、布克和参议院民主党领袖查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)在给当时的多数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)的一封信中写道:“这项法案是不可挽救的，我们需要两党会谈，以达到一个建设性的起点。”。
斯科特的2020年法案将结束像扼颈这样有争议的做法，增加人体摄像头的使用，使私刑成为联邦仇恨犯罪(这方面的立法已经通过)，增加降级策略的培训，并建立一个委员会，研究在毒品案件中使用禁敲令。
哈里斯在关于是否对该立法进行投票的辩论中说:“共和党的法案被抛出，只是口头上说说这个问题，没有任何实质性内容，实际上可以挽救或本来可以挽救任何人的生命。”
相反，哈里斯呼吁参议院考虑众议院支持的一项法案，该法案更进一步，禁止无敲门认股权证并取消有条件的豁免权。但在当时共和党控制的参议院，它没有进展。2020年，上院也没有对任何一项法案进行投票。
拜登现在面临一个分裂的国会，民主党在参议院占据最微弱的多数。目前，参议院没有任何关于警察改革的重大谈判，众议院的任何努力都可能被共和党多数派阻止。
Why Congress has failed to pass policing reform in recent years
As the nation awaits the release of body camera footage from Memphis police in the death of Tyre Nichols, calls for systemic police reform at the Congressional level are once again starting up.
This is far from the first time in recent years that police reform has been a serious political discussion. President Joe Biden campaigned on a promise to reform policing. Since taking office, he's vowed to "sign into law a comprehensive and meaningful police reform bill."
But despite Biden's promises, there's been no bill put forward by Congress for him to sign. It's not for lack of trying: there's been multiple attempts on Capitol Hill in recent years to pass police reform. None have been successful.
Here is why some of the recent attempts at police reform have failed.
Highlights
-While police reform remains an ambition for some Democrats, there are currently no major efforts in Congress to reform policing. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is not expected to pick up any reform efforts Democrats may bring forward.
-Senate Democrats do not appear to be actively negotiating on the topic after talks failed in 2021.
-The last major push to reform policing stalled out in the Senate in September 2021 after months of bipartisan negotiations between Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. Negotiators couldn't get past concerns about union involvement or qualified immunity
-Vice President Kamala Harris, while still in the Senate, led Democrats in blocking a separate 2020 Republican-led effort to reform policing arguing that a GOP bill was not substantive enough.
Booker-Scott effort stalls
After former police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty in the death of George Floyd in April 2021, a bipartisan group of senators, led by Booker and Scott, began working on a police reform deal that ultimately failed to come together after months of negotiation.
This 2021 push was the most recent Congressional attempt to enact nation-wide police reform. It yielded a framework, but never a bill that could be brought to the Senate floor.
The framework would have, among other things, provided more resources to police departments, a key item for Republicans, while granting more federal power in bringing misconduct cases in areas of excessive force, sexual misconduct, theft and obstruction of justice, an item of import for Democrats.
But there proved to be insurmountable differences between Booker and Scott that could not be resolved. Negotiations hit a major snag over the summer before collapsing in September after two significant sticking points proved insurmountable.
MORE: Policing reform talks hit setback over qualified immunity, but negotiators plow onThe first issue stemmed from the bill's failure to address so-called qualified immunity, a legal immunity for police officers. Democrats insisted on ending immunity protections by modifying the standard that had to be reached for an officer to face prosecution. Republicans said modifying these standards could subject officers to frivolous lawsuits. It was a red line for both parties and neither budged.
The framework also met its demise over disagreement from police unions. Scott told Booker he would "not stand in the way" of the framework if unions could get on board, a source told ABC News. The National Association of Police Organizations ultimately opposed the legislation and the fact that it was not included in talks earlier in the process.
MORE:Bipartisan police reform negotiations over without deal
The combined problems led to lawmakers announcing in September 2021 that talks were ending.
GOP bill blocked by Democrats
Kamala Harris, then a junior senator, was also one of the faces of a separate Congressional effort to reform policing in 2020, before she gave up her seat to join Biden's presidential ticket.
She and Booker led Democrats in blocking Scott's first policing reform bill, the JUSTICE Act -- proposed in the aftermath of the deaths of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks at the hands of police -- arguing that Republican efforts were unserious and not substantive enough.
"We will not meet this moment by holding a floor vote on the JUSTICE Act, nor can we simply amend this bill, which is so threadbare and lacking in substance that it does not even provide a proper baseline for negotiations. This bill is not salvageable and we need bipartisan talks to get to a constructive starting point," wrote Harris, Booker and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer in a letter to then-majority Leader Mitch McConnell at the time.
Scott's 2020 bill would have ended controversial practices like chokeholds, increased the use of body cameras, made lynching a federal hate crime (legislation doing this has since passed), increased training for de-escalation tactics and established a commission to study the use of no-knock warrants in drug cases.
"The Republican bill has been thrown out to give lip service to an issue with nothing substantial in it, that would actually save or would have save any of those lives," said Harris during debate about whether to vote on the legislation.
Harris instead called for the Senate to consider a House-backed bill that went further, banning no-knock warrants and eliminating qualified immunity. But in the then-Republican controlled Senate, it went nowhere. No votes on either bill were held in the upper chamber in 2020 either.
Biden now faces a divided Congress with Democrats holding the narrowest of majorities in the Senate. There are not any major talks of police reform going on in the Senate at this time, and any House effort will likely be blocked from the floor by the GOP majority.
