Center for American Progress (CAP)
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump announced an executive order on policing today during a Rose Garden event. In response to the announcement, Ed Chung, vice president for Criminal Justice Reform at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:
The executive order that President Trump signed today takes reform ideas currently under consideration by the House of Representatives and waters them down to make them virtually meaningless. Police departments already have access to local, state, and federal funds to improve their policies and reform their culture, but those incentives have not resulted in meaningful change.
Reforming the police requires systemic change, and that begins with holding officers and departments accountable for their failures, misconduct, and violations of law. Yet the Trump administration not only rolled back all of the reforms enacted by President Barack Obama but also abdicated its statutory responsibility to investigate police agencies for unconstitutional policing practices. This executive order amounts to lip service and does not make up for the administration’s failures.
