Top Democrats in Congress proposed legislation to reform policing practices but stopped short of endorsing activists’ calls to “defund the police”, as politicians across the US grappled with how to respond to the killing of George Floyd.

Two weeks after Floyd died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after a police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes, Democrats offered a bill drafted by members of the Congressional Black Caucus that would put new limits on police tactics and make it easier to punish offences by officers.

The legislation was introduced after nine members of the Minneapolis city council said at the weekend that they would vote to dismantle and defund the city’s police department, giving them enough votes to withstand a veto from Jacob Frey, the city’s Democratic mayor who opposes the plan. The council members said they would work with city residents “to identify what safety looks like for everyone” in “a police-free future”.