Sandra Bland was an African American woman driving from Illinois to Texas to start her new job. When she was driving, she got pulled over for failing to signal after changing lanes. The police officer and Sandra Bland began to argue, and the police officer then pulled out a stun gun. She was then taken into custody and put in jail. A few days later, she was found hanged in her cell.

This event happened on July 13, 2015. After her wrongful death, the county and her family agreed to create the Sandra Bland Act. 

The Sandra Bland Act was passed on June 15, 2017, by State Rep. Garnet Coleman for criminal justice reform. Originally, this Act included measures towards de-escalation between civilians and police officers because of racial profiling. This Act was created for officer training, jail safety, bail reform, racial profiling, and to provide for the safety of inmates with a mental illness by using electronic monitoring. Unfortunately, the Bill was stripped last minute of measures to limit arrests for offenses punishable only by fines, deeper training in racial bias, and preventing racial profiling.  Bland’s family was disappointed with how many changes were made from the original policies. 

Her family and other lawmakers hope to see removed provisions restored in future legislation, such as:

- prohibiting “pretext stops” in which an officer makes a traffic stop to investigate other suspected criminal activity based on “reasonable suspicion.”

- misdemeanor arrest restrictions missing from the Bland Act, as well as reforms of grand juries and the death penalty.

- Deeper training in racial bias, preventing racial profiling

Please help by signing the petition and spreading the word so that the original policies can be reinstated to the Sandra Bland Act, so we can see positive change.