President Trump plans to announce an executive order addressing police reform on Tuesday amid growing calls for action in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
“The overall goal is we want law and order and we want it done fairly, justly. We want it done safely,” Trump told reporters at the White House, confirming he would hold a news conference to sign the order on Tuesday.
“But we want law and order,” he added. “This is about law and order, but it’s about justice also.”
Senior administration officials told reporters Monday afternoon that the order would incentivize police departments to use best practices when it comes to use of force; encourage information sharing so that officials can track officers who have excessive use of force complaints; and call for co-responder programs in which social workers accompany police when responding to nonviolent reports involving homelessness, mental health and drug and alcohol addiction.
“The goal of this is to bring police closer together with the communities,” a senior administration official told reporters on a background call organized by the White House. “We’re not looking to defund the police, we’re looking to invest more and incentivize best practices.”
The order will prioritize discretionary grants for police departments that are certified by bodies that train officers on de-escalation techniques and use of force standards, a second official said, including policies that prohibit chokeholds except in situations where deadly force is allowed by law.
“We think that goes a lot further than anything anyone’s put on the table right now,” the second official said.
The order was developed after conversations with law enforcement officials and their representatives, as well as representatives of families of victims who have been killed by police, a senior official said.
But it’s unclear how the executive order will be enforced or how law enforcement agencies will be held accountable, with officials indicating mayors and local officials will largely shoulder the burden to ensure their departments are complying with best practices.
Trump will deliver an address announcing the order on Tuesday and also plans to call on Congress to enact legislation to address police reform in the wake of Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police in late May.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) has been leading the effort for Republicans in the GOP-controlled Senate and is expected to unveil legislation this week.
Meanwhile, House Democrats introduced a sweeping bill last week aiming to rein in police brutality. The legislation would impose a federal ban on chokeholds, mandate the nationwide use of body cameras, limit the “qualified immunity” doctrine shielding police officers from lawsuits, and establish a national database that would disclose names of officers who have a pattern of abuse, among other measures.
The White House has called the change to “qualified immunity” a “non-starter.” But there appears to be initial agreement on multiple other points, including outlawing chokeholds and requiring or incentivizing law enforcement to report uses of force.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told Fox News that Trump would continue to work with Scott and other congressional leaders and that he would sign bipartisan legislation if he believed it to be reasonable.
Trump said last Thursday that his administration was finalizing an executive order that would encourage police departments to meet “professional standards” for the use of force in the line of duty.
“We’re working to finalize an executive order that will encourage police departments nationwide to meet the most current professional standards for the use of force, including tactics for de-escalation,” Trump said during a roundtable with law enforcement and business and faith leaders in Dallas. The president described the order as encouraging “force with compassion.”
The flurry of activity around policing reform comes as protests have convulsed the nation following the death of Floyd, who died after a white police officer in Minneapolis knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Trump, who has been under tremendous scrutiny for his response to the demonstrations, and Congress have been under pressure to take steps to address police reform.
Calls for changes in policing have intensified again this week after a white police officer shot and killed Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old black man, in Atlanta.
“The trust that we have with the police force is broken and the only way to heal some of these wounds is through a conviction and a drastic change with the police department,” Brooks’s cousin said Monday.
Trump, asked about the Brooks case on Monday afternoon, told reporters it was “very disturbing.”
“I thought it was a terrible situation,” he said. “I studied it closely. I’m going to get some reports done today, very strong reports, and we’ll have a little more to say about it tomorrow.”
— Updated at 6:24 p.m.