The Department of Justice said Friday it was scaling back a program developed under the Obama administration aimed at advising and reforming police units around the country and now will only focus on helping cops fight crimes like gang activities and drug trafficking.
The department created the Collaborative Reform Initiative for Technical Assistance program in 2011, and the initiative allowed cities and police departments to voluntarily ask federal officials for assistance on any issue, such as use of force policies and police shootings.
Recommended Stories
The process was a broad, big-picture Justice Department analysis of a police department and its policies and practices, and how they affect the public. The Justice Department also held forums to hear from the public about police practices, and then released a set of recommendations designed to improve the police department after the two-year process.
Following the public release of the recommendations, the Justice Department would spend roughly 18 months helping the police department implement the recommendations, though they were not mandatory and not bound by court orders.
The department said Friday it would scale back the initiative significantly and would focus on issues like crime reduction, gang and drug activity, and widespread gun violence. Other issues include active shooter and mass casualty responses, how police respond to large protests and demonstrations, and officer safety and wellness.
But use of force is no longer an issue that will be brought up under the program.
The Justice Department will also no longer issue follow-up assessment reports for the police departments, the Washington Examiner has learned. However, those cities and departments currently waiting for those reports have the opportunity to opt-in to the new program and receive some sort of technical assistance from the department.
In March, Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed the Justice Department to review all of its programs to ensure they aligned with his goals of promoting “officer safety, officer morale and public respect for their work.
This was seen as a move to pull back the hands-on approach of policing by the federal government over local and state law enforcement the Obama administration had heralded.
Sessions said Friday the change will fulfill his “commitment to respect local control and accountability while still delivering important tailored resources to local law enforcement to fight violent crime.”
