President Biden Signs Executive Order on Policing Reform, Accountability
Sarah Silbiger | Bloomberg
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed an executive order (E.O. 14074) mandating policy and procedure reform among federal law enforcement agencies to advance accountability. Vice President Kamala Harris, law enforcement stakeholders, civil rights groups, Senators, and family members of police violence victims joined the President for the signing ceremony.
The directive applies to roughly 100,000 federal law enforcement and establishes incentives that may impact state and local law enforcement agencies. According to the White House, federal tools, such as guidance on best practices, training, and technical assistance, as well as grantmaking, would be used to strengthen public trust and improve public safety in state, tribal, local, and territorial law enforcement agencies.
The order includes provisions that:
Establish a new use of force standard that emphasizes de-escalation and creates an affirmative duty for officers to intervene if a colleague is using excessive force in the model of the policy issued by the Department of Justice on May 20, 2022;
Require the Attorney General (AG) consider ways to work with State AGs to improve pattern or practice investigations;
Direct the Director of the Office of Personnel Management to establish and interagency working group to strengthen law enforcement recruitment, hiring, retention, leadership development, and related issues;
Require the interagency working group to provide a report on the aforementioned issues within 365 days;
Establish a National Law Enforcement Accountability Database with anonymized official records documenting instances of law enforcement officer misconduct as well as condemnations and awards;
Improve use of force data collection by requiring the heads of federal law enforcement agencies to submit data monthly to the FBI National Use of Force Data Collection;
Ban use of chokeholds and carotid restraints unless the use of deadly force is authorized;
Requires evidence-based anti-bias training;
Restrict the use of no-knock warrants;
Establish law enforcement wellness and suicide prevention initiatives; and,
Use federal grant money to incentivize state and local police departments to adhere to the provisions of this Executive Order.
The order coincides with the Justice Department updating its policy on use of force for the first time in 18 years. The new policy, issued on May 20, 2022, establishes the affirmative duty to intervene in officer misconduct as well as an affirmative duty to render medical aid if an individual is in need.
The policy reads, “It is the policy of the Department of Justice to value and preserve human life. Officers may use only the force that is objectively reasonable to effectively gain control of an incident, while protecting the safety of the officer and others. Officers may use force only when no reasonably effective, safe, and feasible alternative appears to exist and may use only the level of force that a reasonable officers on the scene would use under the same or similar circumstances.”
National President of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association Larry Cosme expressed support for the policy, telling the Washington Post, “It's the modernization of policing, and you need to update policies to reflect what's going on in our country. Every officer that's a good officer is always going to try to do their jobs to the best of their ability, and this reinforces what the men and women in federal law enforcement are already doing.'”
During remarks at the event, Vice President Harris explained, “These actions are a result of input and collaboration from a broad set of partners, many of whom are here today: civil rights leaders; members of Congress, in particular members of the Congressional Black Caucus…; leading law enforcement groups; and, of course, the families of the victims.”
President Biden thanked the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the Police Executive Research Forum, Major City Chiefs Association, and others for their involvement.
President Biden and Vice President Harris called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act which would have a greater impact on state and local law enforcement. Congressional negotiations on the bill broke down last year.
In response to the Order, Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP, who attended Wednesday’s signing ceremony, said in a statement, “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. 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.”
The President signed the Order on the two-year anniversary of the killing of George Floyd, a case of police misconduct that resulted in widespread protests regarding law enforcement use of force. A jury convicted the officer who killed Floyd of murder and sentenced the officer to 22 and a half years in prison last year. Three other former officers were convicted in federal court of violating Floyd’s civil rights.