WHITE HOUSE
Trump’s answer to nationwide protests:
Police-friendly reforms
The president’s executive order, set to be unveiled
Tuesday, is designed to spur local reforms while drawing contrasts with liberal
activists.
By NANCY
COOK
06/15/2020
07:51 PM EDT
Updated:
06/15/2020 10:49 PM EDT
President
Donald Trump hopes to acknowledge a nationwide uproar over police brutality
while preventing rifts with police and other law enforcement groups integral to
his political future.
With an
executive order set to be unveiled at a White House event on Tuesday, the
president is expected to lay out the case for the creation of a national
database of police misconduct, so officers with a history of overly aggressive
behavior cannot simply move to another department or state to escape scrutiny,
according to a senior administration official. The order will also urge social
workers and mental health professionals to work more closely alongside
frontline officers. Finally, it will offer guidelines for new training and
credentialing for police officers on de-escalating tense situations, and the
best times to use force, according to the senior administration official, who
said the goal of the order was not to demonize police officers.
The White
House’s latest move, following weeks of protests in communities across the
nation, has been crafted in close consultation with police officers, mayors,
conservative African Americans, faith-based leaders and the families of
victims, according to people familiar with the planning. Maintaining the
political support of police — and appearing like a law-and-order president —
has been a leading imperative for Trump’s top aides and political advisers as
some liberal activists push to defund police departments and divert money to
community programs.
In an
unrelated White House event on Monday, Trump said the overall goal for the
executive order is the desire to maintain “law and order” as well as “justice”
and “safety.” “I think this will be very comprehensive,” Trump added, even as
the exact details of the order were still being worked out.
Trump aides
and allies view policing as an area where Republicans can draw sharp contrasts
with Democrats ahead of the general election. Part of that contrast is
acknowledging the killing of George Floyd and several other innocent African
Americans at the hands of what the White House views as rogue police officers.
The approach is built on recommending tweaks to policing while leaving
wholesale changes to mayors and other local government officials.
“The
reality is you have to respect our federalist system,” said Ken Blackwell, the
former mayor of Cincinnati, former Ohio secretary of state and a longtime
conservative leader and Trump supporter. “Safe streets cannot be guaranteed
from the Oval Office or the governor’s mansion. That is local leadership.”
The
executive order will not allot any additional money for new training or the
national database, but a senior administration official said police departments
that undertake such credentialing will receive priority for federal grants.
Additional money for training or police programs will have to come from
legislation from Congress, another senior administration official said. Senate
lawmakers may not proceed until sometime next month.
“The President
is committed to making sure law enforcement has the resources and the respect
they deserve to be able to do their job,” counselor to the president Kellyanne
Conway said Monday on Fox News. “Somebody like the murderous cop in Minneapolis
against George Floyd, he had more than a dozen complaints against him. The
union is protecting him, he's eligible for a pension. It's all kind of things
that can be done so we can ensure people are doing their job.”
Top White
House aides including senior adviser Jared Kushner, Ja’Ron Smith, chief of
staff Mark Meadows and the acting director of the Domestic Policy Council
Brooke Rollins spent the last week developing the executive order, along with
Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.
They hoped
to introduce policies that Democrats can also support, while leaving any major
details for police reform to future legislation, said two people familiar with
the internal discussions.
“We are
looking forward to tomorrow and for the president to have the opportunity to
have a discussion where he has both police officers and police officer
representatives in the room with families of people who were killed by police
officers to have the discussion that the country needs to have so that we can
turn the anger in this country right now into action,” said a senior
administration official.
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