♪♪ ♪♪ >> the state of the union is strong because you, the american people are strong. >> president biden's delivers annual state of the union address outlining his priorities to congress on tuesday february 7. his first state of the union speech since republicans won back control of the house. we will hear republican response and take phone calls, texts and tweets. watch live coverage of the state of the union 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now, free mobile video apps or online at c-span.org. >> senate lawmakers working off the floor setting committee assignments for the one 18th

congress. the senate now in recess until 215 eastern for the weekly party hunch. when members returned from a watch live coverage here on c-span2. >> 's discussion on policing and race after leaving congress she joined national policing institute. a newac initiative on police reform. explain the mission of the project you're working on now and how you got involved in it. >> good morning, it's good to be back withac you. this is work through the national policing institute that's gone on for two years. we initially thought maybe it would be about three months but we realized it was so much we needed to look at it with research-based, it's a good thing. it's all about the only law enforcement but community, other communities, social service representatives.

i believe we were able the last two years to do some good work. we know we have some problems. i spent 27 years in law enforcement, a profession i love. i've worked with some of the bravest most courageous and compassionate men and women but we have had some problems. as you know the last two years, almost three since the death of george floyd the focus has been police reform so the national police institute has been around for about 50 years mission has always been to look at policing and race. the group came together, we look at everything from policies and procedures and standards, specialized units, we look at community-based programs to reduce in the overall mission was to look at public safety in a more holistic way.

public safety is not just responsibility of the police but it takes a minute or to be involved keep us all safe and feel is a stronger community. i know that's what we all want. >> the same day on theis pages f the washington post you can see her calm, police leaders must perform themselves. she's going to talk about it this morning with us for about the next 35 minutes or so, phone line to call in as usual democrats (202)748-8000. republicans (202)748-8001. independent 2027488002. we've all seen the tyree nichols video editor, different videos was raised released so far, what stands out to you and what your reaction? >> as a 27-year-old -- year

police, who works as a social worker before becoming a police officer, i saw the video and it was shocking and appalling. i think every good person, every decent person, every good and decent police officer and executive, should see the video as shocking and appalling. as a police executive i've had the opportunity to review footage and go back and look at what happened and what was the purpose and what occurred in the person. to dictate police and that's what we always did. the response of th' police, i have looked and i know the investigation is ongoing but the video is pretty clear and we should not have anyone not leave

they are lying. the video is pretty clear this was a mic that went off the rail and i know the police chief, chief davis so reviewing and trying to find justifications in the first place. i've not been able to see any justification. this is a tough subject but we've got to get this right. what happened with tyree nichols, his family and community, every decent person is going through, we've got to come together and put programs in place and legislation that can prevent like this from happeningg again. >> the headline we are seeing today, seventh officer that link the death investigation relieved of duty. talked about already the

specialized unit receiving scrutiny in the wake of these videos released. why do we have specialized policing units, what's the purpose, should departments have these units? >> i had specialized units when i was appointed police chief, an all-time high and the system one of the police to do something about it so we had specialized units as well. their purpose as i said in orlando was to target the worst of the worst, gang members, the drugs, the dealers, those committing violence, the worst of the worst and we had a list and we knew who they were so the specialized unit targeted the worst of the worst behavior is

something citizens appreciate because they wanted crime produced, especially violent crime produced. i remove are gettingei calls frm seniors and retirees in certain neighborhoods and they said they werebo trying tired of going to church and having to wait through drug dealers to get to church. tired of seeing their grandchildren walked to the bus stop being accosted by drug dealers so everyone, regardless are everyone deserves to live in safe and secure communities. i had a specialized unit i had to disband because the department of certain mission has policies and procedures but also loosing within some specialized unit, department culture is one of safety and service, some specialized unit in develop their own culture and

i had to disband one of our units so specialized units have a purpose and they are rated for the right reason we have to have the most highly trained, highly seasoned officers within those units. you have to be sure to give proper supervision and one thing really important is to not leave these officers. it's high risk, high stress, you have to rotate them within the units on a regular basis. >> in memphis, scorpion unit street crime operation to restore peace in our neighborhoods created late 2021 shut down saturday, a day after police chief there defendant. on calls for reform, a lot of focus on the george floyd justiceon and policing act.t

past house last congress, did not pass the senate what does that do and if you had been passed, is there anything in that you think would have prevented what happened here? >> i was disappointed that the george floyd justice and policing act sold in the u.s. senate. it's not perfect legislation. we all know that, i didn't think it was perfect, there were some areas that didn't necessarily agree with but we need to do something. i think developing nationalnd standards, that will help give police departments the tools they need. we have over 18000 law enforcement agencies in the country, godless men and women who do the job right everyday. it's a tough job.

we have police departments 36000, police department that are as few as ten or even less so i believe it's national standard in terms of hiring, training and proper use of equipment especially from the federal government. modifying policy -- let me go back, the brightest and best. we have to have men and women and the temperament of the job so giving police department additional funding and whatever it takes to expand their scope to hire people with the right temperament but also police department, it always has been and is still important. we know police department and on their side they have different hetraining budgets.

the justice and policing act would allow for minimum standard training will standard to give men and women scheduled to protect themselves, to better be able to protect members of community. modifying policies like chokehold and no knock warrants. we had a policy that said strike a person with a shoulder unless you are justified in using deadly force. why? is right above the shoulder because death or great bodily harm. we saw in memphis to the video what we all saw tragically with our own eyes or officers to keep tyree in the head, they punched him in h the face and they taste him and the national database in

one agency maybe even another space they cannot simply cross state lines and then increasing accountability. and they are not afraid of life. increase accountability. it's a good thing when officers, but officers know they are going to be held accountable and pay the consequences for bad behavior. so the george cloyd policing act was not perfect in the right direction. past in the house, i don't think there's an appetite in congress this time is not much of an

appetite to protect members of o congress threatened. to step up and take matters into their own hands. after george cloyd i, phone and called police executives and said if you don't want the federal government telling you what to do look internally and take action to modify own policy, many of them did that. many did not and look where we are today. we got to do something, this cannot continue to happen. >> cochair on counsel on police reform. plenty of calls for you, congresswoman. we will start in illinois,s, christina langford democrats. good morning. s >> good morning. i have a quick question, does --

do they ever test these officeri heard what was going on to me as hundred like a pack of wild jackals that i thought maybe testosterone and rage from steroids, maybe might be a problem. what do you think on that? >> bake you for your question. whatever a person in authority uses authority in a horrific way and when the results in the deathre of any of them they wild jackals, i'll start with that and i also believe going back to hiring got to take greater steps to make sure we are hiring the right people to do the job.

the individual, a lot of applications to go through but getting the best people is important. the recruitment process andnt hiring process involved psychological evaluation but wee can't just stop there. i remember one of my first bills i supported in congress was law enforcement wellness act that makes sure -- it's a tough job. officers go through a lot. let's make sure we do regular checkups on officers to make sure we take care of mental issues and physical issues and spiritual issues if that's the case. let's increase the arts to do so and make sure we are joining wellness checks on the way on officers to make sure they have everything they need to survive

which also protects the innocent. >> your home state of florida, nick in delray beach. plan for republicans. >> good morning.oo this word salad we are listening to will do nothing to solve anyg of this and it's never done anything to solve any of this. the police reform is only half of it. we need people free-form i mean by that is we need to stop with this disrespect we have in this country for law enforcement. people would be so much better off and i do this in my personal life, i've been pulled over by police. when i get pulled over, i put hazard lights on, i get down every window in the car before they approach the car so they can see inside. i put my hands on the steering wheel and say yes, sir, no, sir and answer the question. we need respect and it has to

start in the home. her to start in the schools which they do not want to talk about. people need to be taught in driver education classes instead of talking about transgender bathrooms and all the other it is the people want to talk about. >> i let you respond to see what you want to talk about. >> good morning. let me say this, i grew up inri florida in jacksonville, to parents in the home. they taught meo to be respectful and taught many people, parents teach their children to be respectful but i heard your earlier segment when were talking about the general lack of morality and respect so it's not just on the street involving police officers, it be get good to get back to her respect for each other in different

political parties. let me just say this. lack of respect,la that may mean something to different people but nobody, a son or daughter deserves to be beaten to death by a a police officer. i did the job and i know who job, i love the men and women who do the job but we sent a message that everybody counts but everybody is accountable. i am sure nick reviewed the same videos i did and lord knows i cannot find anything tyree nicholsng said or did that showa level of disrespect to the

officers. officers are trained and going back to training, the escalation is very important. we want itt to be a national standard so all police departments teach the officers how to de-escalate the situation. the only person on the scene listen and watch, the only person on the scene in memphis that night trying to de-escalate the situation was tyree nichols. thank you, nick. >> new york is next, independent, good morning. >> good morning. i want to start by saying i'm an rn in an emergency department. i have an uncle who was a city police officer and another uncle is a new york state trooper. about ten, 15 years ago i felt police did not really deserve my respect. i was in a snowstorm heading to

work 10:30 p.m. and went through a red light i didn't see until i was up on it and then i slid through it but a police officer, a well-to-do area stopped and yelled at me that i should be off the road without even giving me the respect why are you on the road? there was no respect. another time i had an officer come to a car accident and yelled because we had no right calling so i didn't like officers and then i went to work in an emergency department and i see the fine work that most of them. however, i had an officer, city officer blow up about waiting too long with behavior health patients, screaming in the middle of a busy waiting room and what i would like to say is

i never had that experience with state trooper so what i'm saying is we need to see what the state troopers are doing and what they used to recruit peopletr and how they train people because they are always respectful, it's like a different level and it shouldn't be. the other thing i'd like to add -- back let's let her jump in on that aspect. >> we had a whole policy and regulation respect not just to each other inside the police department but certainly the citizens we serve so having entire regulation on it demonstrates what is. all the good men and women who put on any uniform who do the

job for let me say this -- when we talk about policing and public safety and this is one of the o things the council of tha, we have to reimagine publicva safety, everybody counts but everybody is accountable which means we all have a responsibility to police our communities you may but there's another aspect under what we called in the report the community crime prevention section. it basically says and i think commissioner david brown, the commissioner in chicago now but was police chief in dallas made the statement. he said every time society fails we call the police to solve it. not enough mental health funding given to the police, not enough drug addiction treatment funding available, the police handle it

and we say orange county jail is the biggest treatment facility and biggest drug treatment facility in thehe region. the commissioner went on to say give it to the police but they will handle it. then she frowned and with asking our cops to do too much so while we are making sure our officers have the best training and equipment and make sure to hold them accountable, there are consequences for bad actions we've also got to deall with the social ailments that cause decae in communities in the first place in something president johnson said, policeman and 58 or 68, who got to have the best, the best training and he's accountable, to they look at this issue and given the best

training and test equipment but then they said with got to deal with unemployment and low wages we got to deal with substandard education and homelessness. if we build strong communities we need, we fast-forward and regrets to the same thing so public safety, police are the front line of public safety but it takes a community to get to where we need to be. we got to address this. >> ten minutes left, congresswoman from florida. currently cochair of policing reform and race. you can find it at council on policing reform.org. their recommendation for these issues we've been talking about this morning. taking phone calls online for democrat republicans and independents, this is janine,

vancouver, washington, democrat. good morning. >> i just love you. i've seen what you've done. my comment is this, in my community our department has changed for the better because they reach out to our community and de-escalate. officers are pulling people over but not giving them tickets. something that he, they let them goet because like he sd who i spoke to he doesn't know this, he doesn't want to give an extravagant ticket that will affect his rent or whatever and they are speaking that way now, not just jumping the gun. theyey are actually trying to be

friends with people in my community and is working. my comment is, keep it up because that's what's going to change. i watched my brother get beat in the late 70s almost to death and there was nothing i could do because there were four police officer, they were big and strong and we were teens and they beat him and him telling you, i get did not have a good opinion of them. i do now. i've changed a lot and aged but that's all under the bridge but i'm telling you the community is going to respond when police officers get more talkative, friendlier and not so stern. that's my comment and i think you are awesome, thank you for all you do.

>> janine, thank you for your kind comments. part of the work on the council focuses on community police aspect of safety and service. the work we did was research evidence based so i would invite everyone to look at the report. a major part of it is involve the community and situations, have regular town halls, police academies. give yourself every opportunity to interact with police, involve them. it's okay in your decision-making. body cameras, i remember as police chief, we tested body cameras over a decade ago trying to get ahead, trying to be innovative and proactive. well, we were told we couldn't

afford them in the budget but now thank god police agencies or municipalities are finding the funding they need but as we develop the policies, the camera is just part of the work that needs to be done. develop a policy and how they will be utilized and how the footage will be stored and how it will be used. in training it can be used to do a better job b but it can also e used to help solve to the person's complaints. all citizens in that process to develop your policies number one, it increases understanding. number two, it increases in buy-in and number three, it helps improve trust between the police and community and that's a direction regardless of your party, where you live, your state, their relationship with the police, that is the

direction we all need to be moving in. come up with ways between police and the community and also have an attitude of safety and service. >> remind viewers what qualified immunity is. >> when we think about the george floyd justice and policing act, as part of the legislation that i think lead to it stalling in the u.s. senate.m it's not just extended to law enforcement, i think there's police covid by qualifiedpe immunity and no one else is. it's really extended to people in certain official positions like mayors oron governors or

certain police officers but because police officers have a duty to act in that something we have to keep in mind because we hear people say well, police are treated differently. if i had done it, i'd be behind bars now. police have a duty to act. they can't just look at a streetlight on the corner and say i'm not going over there because i'm white and they are black and if i go, i'll be called racist and i might end up in prison before it's over. they do need to a act, they are obligated and it's part of the investigation that's going on in memphis because of that duty to act it comes with certain protections and provisions that were they are not look that just

like any other citizen or a person in any other profession who does not have that duty act. at least have some have said any effort or discussion about qualified immunity would prevent officers from doing their jobs. the provision is not about good officers doing their job that we were looking at in george floyd, it's holding that officers accountable and every police executive and cheese and officer and every citizen to do that. >> a couple more phone calls as we chat thiss morning on policig reform recommendations from her group. shown in lakeland florida, thank you for waiting. >> good morning. i absolutely love you, i used to call you my political

girlfriend. i will say this, right down the road from orlando. it bad when you have people who say they won't go to orlando because they have to ride through lakeland. our police right now, a friend of mine son, you've probably seen it, he's kind of going viral, he's on the ground and handcuffed getting kicked by police and this thing has been going on forever. my question, i don't know if this is better or if it's getting worse, it's about the same from my view because when we were younger a friend of mine got hot grease kicked on him by the police. the thing is a lot of people in court don't isolate or go all the way so there's no real conviction on these officers so they are just moved to different areas.

great power comes great responsibly. i'm wonderingat , it seems like all we are doing now is just getting it onet videotape were okay, we have the video of the thing that went on in memphis and the video of george floyd and the video of all of this but are they ever going to be charged? of the ever going to do time for this? >> part of your conversation or comments, question cut out but the bottom linees is you ask, is it getting better? let me say this. police officers patrol every community in our nation and they do it 24 hours a day, seven days a week including holidays. that alone, just think about the number of hours and citizen encounters men and women in blue

have every day all day will so we think about that, that statistic alone lets us know it has gotten better. what would happen in memphis, you talked about your relative being kicked on the ground in and it's on video, no one, especially with your situation is certainly in memphis and what happened with george floyd, it was brutal senseless murder and the person involved, officers involved with george floyd have been held accountable. the officers in memphis worked quickly, they were fired, relieved of duty, fired, at least five of the seven, the other investigations are ongoing. we will see what is forthcoming.

they will be prosecuted. they are being held accountable and that's what we want to see. yes, we have a long way to go, it's not the responsibly of our counsel, one person, police department, it is a community issue. the community is the police and police is the communityis. i think we should be encouraged by the action we see what actions we've seen in george floyd's case and tyree nichols case. let's keep moving forward. i know in doing that, some people will be upset with emotionall videos. police have a tough job, i get but we have to put provisions in place to not only protect the citizens we serve but also

protect our police officers. that's what this legislation can help do. that's what police executives taking responsibility for their own changes, that's what they can do. help protect officers and innocent people. police officers taken to prison, no one wants to see that. but seeing a young man or woman lose their life unnecessarily and tragically, no one should want that either. >> look at one more call from panama city, florida. bob has been waiting for a while to chat with you. mine for republican, go ahead. >> do you believe in no cash bail and why are so many policeman retiring or just quitting the job because of the

pressure? i'll hang up and wait for your answer. thank you. >> thank you for your question. i was in town not too long ago. when i d was police chief over a decade ago, a lot of police officers are hired and at the same time we have police academies and they could have 50, 60, 70, 80 or even more and they retire. i can remember saying we will have 100 police officers retire next year and we've got to i'm hoping and praying they will allow us to hire before they h leave so officers can be trained and ready to hit the street. i know there have been efforts to see police officers running for the door because of pressure

of the community. that's not true. the job has always been tough. going to work everyday knowing you could be shot at or not see your family again after bit -- whatever, it is a tough job and men and women are willing to do it. it's always been a challenge for policing. it's a job getting tougher and probably is getting tougher, do you know why? gun violence, drug dealers, gang activity. it is a tough job. police don't have the tools or training they need to do the job. let's make sure they do. there's no simple answer.

we all want to give men and women the tools they need today. we should want -- to give them the tools they needed to do the job 50 years ago. let's keep moving in the right direction. we can do this. >> credit with the national policing institute counsel on policing t reform.org, the work she's been doing since being in congress, thank you for chatting with us. chat with us again down the road. >> thank you and take care. >> senate lawmakers today working off the floor setting committee assignments for the 118 congress. the senate now is in recess until 2:15 p.m. eastern for their weekly party lunches. when members returned from a watch live coverage here on c-span2. >> the state of the union is strong because you, the american people are strong