President Trump said his administration will invest more in training for police departments, including de-escalation techniques, as he responded to weeks of protests against police brutality.
But the president, who spoke during a visit to Dallas, Texas, also fired a warning at the Black Lives Matter movement and “defund the police” activists, defending the majority of officers and saying progress would not be made by labeling millions of Americans racist.
Speaking at a roundtable discussion with faith leaders, law enforcement officials, and small-business owners at a church, he unveiled his plan for police reform.
“We are working to finalize an executive order that will encourage police departments nationwide to meet the most current professional standards for the use of force — and that means force, but that means force with compassion,” he said.
“If you are going to have to really do a job, if someone is really bad, you are going to have to do it with real strength, real power.”
Police reform campaigners had hoped he would commit to pushing through reforms that go further than simply encouraging best practice.
Instead, he called for “law and order” and said problems were caused by a few “bad apples.”
His plan includes promoting tactics for de-escalating tension and mobilizing co-response teams to help with cases involving drugs, the homeless, or people with mental health issues.
Trump’s words were met with whoops and cheers at times, making the discussion sound more like one of his campaign rallies than a policy discussion.
His White House has been under intense pressure to act following nationwide demonstrations after George Floyd died in Minneapolis police custody last month.
But officials have repeatedly denied claims that the problem lay in institutional racism, a point repeated by Trump on Thursday.
“Americans are good and virtuous people,” he said. “We have to work together to confront bigotry and prejudice wherever they appear, but we will make no progress and heal no wounds by falsely labeling tens of millions of decent Americans as racist or bigots.”
