Kwame Raoul had to drop the policy five years ago and believes that police licensing could have prevented the death of George Floyd.
The Attorney General of Illinois has said that deaths like that of George Floyd show the need for police officers to be licensed by the state just like workers from other professions.
As the U. S. remains convulsed by protests following Floyd’s death, Kwame Raoul has said he would pursue his effort to push for a state licensing system for police akin to what physicians, pharmacists and hairdressers have.
He first pushed the idea as a state senator during a sweeping criminal justice bill that followed the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The legislation banned police chokeholds and created a database of officers who had been disciplined due to misconduct.
But the provision to license officers was dropped so it could be passed and signed into law in 2015. Now he thinks it now has a better chance of passing the legislature.
