AUSTIN, Texas -- The first sweeping police reforms proposed in Texas following a black woman's 2015 death in a rural jail after a confrontational traffic stop would revamp racial profiling laws and officer training.
But the "Sandra Bland Act" filed Thursday faces a difficult road in the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature. One police association has already criticized the bill as misguided.
MORE | State Representative Introduces 'Sandra Bland Act' Focusing on Police De-Escalation Tactics
Authorities say Bland killed herself in jail days after being stopped by a white state trooper over a lane change. Her death became a flashpoint in the Black Lives Matter movement.
Supporters of the bill include an organizer of a Dallas march last summer that began as a protest of fatal police shootings of black men, but ended with a sniper killing five officers. Following that ambush, some top Republicans criticized police protesters.