President Biden Signs Executive Order to Prevent and Punish Police Misconduct

President Biden signed an executive order Wednesday aimed at preventing and punishing police misconduct, a step that came on the second anniversary of the police killing of George Floyd. The order authorizes the formation of a national accreditation system for police departments and creates a national database of federal officers who have disciplinary records or face substantiated misconduct complaints. Federal law enforcement agencies will also update their use-of-force policies to emphasize de-escalation.

The executive order is a result of a months-long process that began after the collapse of congressional efforts to craft a bipartisan bill. Police groups denounced a leaked draft in January that cited "systemic racism" in the criminal justice system, and the order then went through several iterations after that based on input from police groups and civil rights advocates.

The order reflects a careful balance, noting that "the vast majority of law enforcement officers do these difficult jobs with honor and integrity," while adding that "fatal encounters have disparately impacted Black and Brown people and other people of color."

Despite the executive order, advocates have been pressing the White House to take sweeping action to address systemic racism, with a focus on overhauling policing and the criminal justice system. They fear Biden has lost a sense of urgency about police reform after the collapse of legislation named for Floyd, a Black man whose death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer in 2020 set off social justice demonstrations nationwide.

Key Takeaways:

• The executive order authorizes the formation of a national accreditation system for police departments and creates a national database of federal officers who have disciplinary records or face substantiated misconduct complaints.
• Federal law enforcement agencies will update their use-of-force policies to emphasize de-escalation.
• The order establishes new restrictions on the transfer of military equipment to local law enforcement agencies and encourages all law enforcement agencies to participate in the new misconduct database.
• The order will not eliminate "qualified immunity," which protects police officers from being sued individually for misconduct, a feature that was included in the federal bill.
• Dozens of statehouse bills that would eliminate qualified immunity have also been defeated.
• The White House does not have the power to make some changes long demanded by advocates, such as banning chokeholds or adopting stricter policies about when police can use force, which require action on the state or local level.

Statistics:

• 18,000: Number of state and local law enforcement agencies in the US.
• 2 years: Amount of time since the police killing of George Floyd that led to the signing of the executive order.
• 10 years: Gianna Floyd's age, who was present at the White House alongside her father, who was killed by police.
• 19: Number of children killed in the mass shooting in Texas on Tuesday.
• 2: Number of teachers killed in the same shooting.
• 18: Age of the shooter in the Texas mass shooting.

Sources:

• [The New York Times, "Biden Signs Executive Order on Police Reform After White House Fails to Pass Bill", Matt Viser, 2022]
• [The New York Times, "Biden's Police Reform Bill Fails to Pass in Senate", Matt Viser, 2022]