President Trump signed an executive order encouraging a slate of police reforms.
Three weeks after the death of George Floyd, a black man whose death in Minneapolis police custody inspired widespread protests, the president took executive action on Tuesday in the White House Rose Garden surrounded by representatives of law enforcement.
“We need to bring law enforcement and communities closer together, not to drive them apart.” Trump said, adding: “Reducing crime and raising standards are not opposite goals. They are not mutually exclusive. They work together.”
The order sets guidelines for police departments to meet certain standards on the use of force, including chokeholds, if they want access to federal grants. It also creates a federal database of officers for police misconduct.
Republican senators are also working on police reform legislation.
Trump said he has met with the families of victims of police violence, but none were present at the event Tuesday.
The president also highlighted former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden’s history on the issue, noting that such an executive order was not issued during the previous administration. “The reason they didn’t try is because they had no idea how to do it. And it is a complex situation,” Trump said. Biden is now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
A recent Wall Street Journal report noted that Obama created a task force after the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown that offered nearly 60 policing proposals that have been slowly leading to change.
