Here's What's in President Biden's Executive Order on Police Reform

     This month, President Biden formally announced an executive order that has been in the works since at least January, an executive order signed on the second anniversary of George Floyd's death and one that makes sure, as Biden says, his name is "more than a hashtag." The four officers who murdered Floyd were all convicted of federal charges brought by Attorney General Merrick Garland while two have been convicted on state charges and two more await trial. Dozens of states and cities have passed hundreds of laws and ordinances reforming the police. Federal investigations, which were used only once by the Trump administration, were launched into the Minneapolis, Phoenix, Louisville, and Mount Vernon Police Departments in 2021 alone; the 2023 budget proposes more funding for investigations like these. The COPS Office has secured more than $125 million in new funding to build community policing, with much more expected in the coming years. Now, this executive order is the most concrete and consequential step ever taken to reform policing in U.S. history. This order:

1. Establishes a national database for police misconduct that includes officers convicted of crimes, decertified, fired, successfully sued, who have a history of complaints, or who resigned or retired while under investigation.
2. Strengthens pattern or practice investigations by improving coordination and directing the issuance of best practice guidelines.
3. Mandates that federal law enforcement agencies preserve all evidence related to misconduct investigations and ensures timely and consistent discipline.
4. Requires body-worn cameras for federal law enforcement officers as well as that agencies publicly post their related policies.
5. Bans the use of carotid restraints and chokeholds and restricts no-knock warrants.
6. Limits the use of force for federal LEAs, mandates annual training on these policies, imposes a duty to intervene against misconduct by fellow officers and a duty to render medical care, and places de-escalation training front and center in federal police training.
7. Restores and drastically expands the Obama-Biden ban on the transfer of military equipment to police departments to be even more broad than was called for in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
8. Ensures only the best federal LEOs are hired by prioritizing diversity in hiring and enhancing efforts to stomp out white supremacy in the ranks as well as cutting off partnerships with the most brutal local law enforcement agencies.
9. Directs the attorney general to issue guidance and clarify resources for innovative approaches to respond to people experiencing mental health crises and establishes guidelines for the use of drugs like ketamine outside the hospital setting.
10. Prioritizes and expands officer wellness programs designed to prevent suicide and bolster mental health among police officers.
11. Requires annual anti-bias training for federal law enforcement officers.
12. Tracks data on use-of-force incidents by the end of the year and requires this database to be updated at least monthly as well as data on officers killed or injured and fully implements the Death in Custody Reporting Act.
13. Directs the Department of HHS to conduct and publish a study on the mental, physical, and public health effects of use-of-force incidents on communities; highlights mental health resources available to communities; and requires the attorney general to issue best practice guidance for police-community dialogue.
14. Launches the first National Academy of Sciences study on the impact of facial recognition technology.
15. Establishes a working group on how to collect and publish data on police practices and data transparency.
16. Requires full implementation of the FIRST STEP Act passed in 2018.
17. Creates a committee to propose a government-wide strategic plan to reform the federal criminal justice system.
18. Improves the conditions of confinement, including increasing mitigation of COVID-19 and limiting restrictive confinement for women, juveniles, and persons in recovery.
19. Requires that law enforcement agencies that receive federal grants and accreditation implement policies consistent with those in the executive order.

     George Floyd has already seen accountability with the men who murdered him sentenced to prison. Now, with this executive order, he is seeing justice. The final step of this chapter is for Congress to finally pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and codify the policies laid out in this executive order into law; I'm also calling on President Biden to establish a national policing commission and to conduct more investigations into police departments like those in Kenosha, Huntsville, Spokane, Austin, and other places around the country. Justice for George Floyd is just the first step. We need to see justice for black and brown Americans at every level.