President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday on police reform that bans chokeholds “unless an officer’s life is at risk,” increases federal oversight of police departments and encourages departments to move towards better practices on use of force, though the order falls short of what activists are pushing for and ties its mandates to incentives.
Under the order, the federal government will require police departments to ban chokeholds, the police maneuver used by the Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd, to receive certification that will allow them to access federal grants.
It will also create a database to track police officers with several misconduct violations and push for departments to involve mental healthcare workers on calls dealing with homelessness, mental illness and addiction.
Activist groups are expected to criticize the order as not doing enough: in the wake of George Floyd’s death, protest groups, including Black Lives Matter, have pushed for sweeping reform, including “defunding the police.”
Trump decried the “radical and dangerous efforts to dissolve our police” during prepared remarks in the Rose Garden before he — surrounded by law enforcement — signed the order Tuesday, adding “without police, there is chaos.”
After discussing the policy details of his executive order, the president dedicated much of his remarks Tuesday towards decrying protesters and attacking the record of his predecessor, former president Barack Obama, and former vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Trump has rallied to the defense of police officers and argued Tuesday that police misconduct was the the work of a small percentage of police officers: “They’re very tiny. I use the word tiny. It’s a very small percentage. But you have them. But nobody wants to get rid of them more than the really good and great police officers.”
Trump said Tuesday that his executive order would go “hand in hand” with the bill Senate Republicans are working on — and implored GOP leadership to get a bill done quickly. Led by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Republican senators are working to put together a bill that would increase training to focus on de-escalation tactics and lessen the potential for chokeholds, among other measures. House Democrats are debating a bill that would ban chokeholds outright, and no-knock warrants in drug cases, as was used in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, in March, and increase police accountability, among other reform measures.
Democrats criticized the order for not going far enough: “While the president has finally acknowledged the need for policing reform, one modest executive order will not make up for his years of inflammatory rhetoric and policies designed to roll back the progress made in previous years,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.
Featured Image Creit: U.S. President Donald Trump is applauded by law enforcement leaders surrounding him as he holds up an executive order on police reform after signing it during an event in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, June 16, 2020. Leah Millis | Reuters
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