With the pall of nearly two dozen deaths hanging over the nation after a shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas, President Joe Biden gathered a handful of people to the White House to mark another tragic day with the hope for renewed justice.
On the second anniversary of George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police, President Joe Biden signed an executive order enacting federal policing reforms, with the intent of changes trickling down to local agencies, and the goal of restoring trust in law enforcement. He did so alongside the families of victims of police violence, including Floyd’s family, the family of Breonna Taylor, and the family of Elijah McClain.
“In your own ways, each of you — whose families have been victimized — have summoned the courage to find purpose through your pain, to stir justice that’s been too long dormant, go give hope while in need of hope yourself,” Biden said. The executive order, he said, is an important measure of what Americans can do together “to heal the very soul of this nation.”
Public trust in police has eroded in recent years, especially among Black and Hispanic communities, according to the Pew Research Center. With that lack of trust between the community and public safety, comes a lack of confidence that police can protect against and solve crimes, and deliver justice, Biden said.
This executive order, Biden said, seeks to promote accountability, to raise standards for policing, and seeks to modernize law enforcement.
According to senior White House officials, the order includes restrictions on use-of-force by federal officers, creates a new national database of police misconduct, creates hiring tools for screening officers with a history of unlawful violence or bigoted biases, and will restrict the use of no-knock entries to “limited, exceptional circumstances.” It also will restore Obama-era restrictions on transfers of military equipment to law enforcement.
“The president has been clear his whole career that he believes we do need law enforcement, and we need to support them with the resources and training that they need to keep our communities safe,” a senior White House official said. “But I also emphasize that the president believes in more resources for accountable community policing.”
Biden will sign the order on Wednesday at the White House alongside lawmakers and family members of people killed by police, including the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, and representatives from law enforcement.
The executive order is limited solely to federal agencies, as the president’s power does not extend to oversight of state, local, or tribal law enforcement. But the order has some levers to pull to encourage non-federal law enforcement agencies to follow in federal footsteps — namely, grant funding.
“The executive order does contemplate that some grants could potentially be conditioned on an agency having accreditation, or having certain policies in place,” an official said, adding that the order instructs agency heads, including the Attorney General, to award grants “in a manner that promotes and supports agencies that are in the process of getting accredited, or that want to adopt these policies, but could use some federal help.”
Biden’s order also includes instructions to improve data transparency and oversight with reporting of incidents where federal police use deadly force (such as shootings) during arrests or other incidents; creates studies on the impact of use-of-force incidents on communities, and on facial and biometric recognition tools; and creates a group to report on police practices.
Federal agencies, like the Department of Justice, Health and Human Services, and federal law enforcement will also be required to update and prioritize systems for hiring, officer wellness, training, crisis response, and accreditation for law enforcement agencies.
Policing has been on Biden’s priority list since he entered office following campaign promises made in the wake of police killings of Black Americans, including Floyd, in 2020, and a subsequent summer of social justice protests.
Four Minneapolis police officers were convicted of federal charges for their roles in Floyd’s death; two of them were convicted of state-level charges, including murder charges for officer Derek Chauvin. Chauvin was seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck, choking him to death, amid an arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill.
“We know full well that an executive order cannot address America’s policing crisis the same way Congress has the ability to, but we’ve got to do everything we can,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement. “There’s no better way to honor George Floyd’s legacy than for President Biden to take action by signing a police reform executive order.”
In January, conservative online publication The Federalist published an alleged draft version of the executive order — one which appeared to have been taken from photos of a computer screen — leading to angry responses from police groups. The National Association of Police Organizations, which says it represents more than 241,000 sworn officers across the U.S., took issue with language that asked Congress to take action against qualified immunity.
Qualified immunity is a judicial doctrine that protects government officials from being held personally liable for violating a person’s rights, so long as clearly established law was not violated in the process. Generally, to beat qualified immunity claims, a plaintiff has to prove that an officer violated a right that had been part of an existing decision under similar circumstances. The NAPO claimed that sections of the draft order would “decimate law enforcement.”
A fact sheet provided by the White House makes no mention of qualified immunity.
White House officials said that the policy statement of the final order “centers the theme of public trust in public safety.”
The statement, they added, “does not hide from the truth that we need reform in policing and in our larger criminal justice system, and that includes addressing systemic racism.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.