The Biden White House is struggling to reshape an executive order on police accountability three months after a leaked draft drew sharp opposition from law enforcement groups<\/a>, putting the initiative at risk at a time when violent crime is rising and civil rights groups have expressed frustration over the pace of reform.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Police organizations <\/b>said they remain in talks with Biden\u2019s domestic policy adviser, Susan Rice, and other senior aides. But nearly two years after the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others sparked nationwide protests<\/a> and demands for change, the White House has offered no timeline for the release of the order or details of what it might include.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The parties have reached general agreement on some key issues, including creating national standards for the accreditation of police departments and a decertification registry of officers who commit violations, said Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police. Those changes are aimed at boosting accountability by ensuring basic policing standards across the country and limiting the ability of bad officers to get jobs elsewhere.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But the most contentious questions remain unresolved \u2014 such as whether the White House would call for stricter use-of-force standards or changes to qualified legal immunity<\/a> for officers, which protects them being sued as individuals over alleged misconduct. Law enforcement officials also have opposed efforts to make federal grant funding for local police departments contingent on those departments adopting specified reforms, Pasco said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Most police departments are small. Experts say that’s one reason changing them is hard.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The relatively slow-moving process \u2014 more than six months after President Biden promised to pursue executive action <\/a>\u2014 comes as the White House seeks <\/b>to signal support for police amid a two-year surge in gun violence and homicides, but also to reassure critics of policing that Biden wants to improve training and root out misconduct.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Facing sharp criticism from Republicans on public safety, Biden proposed $30 billion in new law enforcement funding in his fiscal 2023 budget request, following a State of the Union address in which he pointedly reaffirmed<\/a> his rejection of the \u201cdefund the police\u201d movement. Policing groups have noticed the recent attentiveness from Biden, who long boasted<\/a> close ties<\/a> to law enforcement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThis felt more like the Joe Biden we\u2019ve known for 25 years,\u201d said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n At the same time, Biden\u2019s stance has alarmed civil rights leaders, who fear the administration\u2019s urgency around police reform<\/a> is fading as the midterm elections approach this fall. Since the collapse<\/a> in Congress last year of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act<\/a> \u2014 which would have ended qualified immunity<\/a>, made it easier to prosecute officers for misconduct and limited police use of force \u2014 advocates have looked to the White House and the Justice Department <\/b>to take bold action.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Maurice Mitchell, national director of the left-leaning Working Families Party, said advocates are \u201cbeginning to see the recalibration politically.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe think it would be bad practice and bad policy if their perceived political vulnerabilities turn into less of an appetite to seriously approach these systemic issues in our criminal justice system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The White House believes public concerns about crime have complicated the political debate, according to law enforcement officials who have spoken with Biden aides. In June 2020 \u2014 at the height of the protests after Floyd\u2019s death in police custody \u2014 about a quarter of Americans said they wanted less money spent on policing, compared with about 31 percent who called for more spending, according to the Pew Research Center<\/a>. By last fall, those wanting reduced funding dropped to 15 percent, with 47 percent calling for more, Pew found.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cHe\u2019s trying to do this in the midst of a 25-year-high<\/a> spike in the crime rate,\u201d Pasco said of Biden\u2019s efforts at police reform. \u201cAnd you\u2019re not going to ‘civil rights\u2019 your way out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n No-knock warrants: Understanding one of the most intrusive and dangerous policing tactics<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n In January, police groups and congressional Republicans denounced a leaked 18-page draft <\/a>of the executive order that cited \u201csystemic racism\u201d within the criminal justice system. The White House rushed to do damage control. Pasco said one Biden aide has suggested a revised version of the executive order could be completed for Biden\u2019s approval by May, a month that includes National Police Week and also marks two years since Floyd\u2019s death. But Pasco called that target unlikely.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Biden aides offered no timetable in an interview with The Washington Post on Wednesday, cautioning they are not in the final stages of presenting a proposal to the president. When pressed, they declined to say whether they hoped to move the order forward before November\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The aides said Biden has been consistent on the need to both provide resources to law enforcement and hold officers accountable for misconduct. And they pointed to a series of Justice Department actions \u2014 including pattern-or-practice investigations into police departments in Minneapolis, Louisville and Phoenix, and new limits on the use of chokeholds by federal officers \u2014 as examples of the administration\u2019s efforts to use federal power to force reforms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThese are not small things,\u201d said Chiraag Bains, deputy director of the White House\u2019s domestic policy council for racial justice and equity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bains cautioned that the president\u2019s legal authority to mandate changes for local policing through executive power is narrow, and said his team is working to determine what can be done within those limitations. <\/b>\u201cThat would include working to establish practices, standards and frameworks to reflect the way in which federal law enforcement can be a model,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd building on and lifting up the best practices we\u2019ve seen in the field, often from state and locals. That\u2019s what an executive order can do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Another Biden administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, acknowledged the political reality that the public\u2019s perceptions of rising crime \u2014 and Republican efforts to portray Democrats as weak in addressing it \u2014 could erode support for sweeping efforts to limit when and how police can use force on the job.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Pasco said he does not know whether the White House will eliminate the \u201csystemic racism\u201d language that sank the draft executive order. But he said the situation has created a bind for Biden aides: Leaving it in would outrage police, but taking it out would anger civil rights groups.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In a meeting at the Justice Department last week with more than two dozen civil rights leaders, Attorney General Merrick Garland sought to reassure them, saying that restoring and maintaining public trust in law enforcement is crucial to building effective crime prevention strategies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Minneapolis AG: Not sufficient evidence to charge officers who killed Amir Locke after no-knock warrant<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Last month, Garland appeared at the conference of National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives in Baton Rouge to announce a new Justice Department effort to encourage police departments to enlist in a \u201ccollaborative reform initiative<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In some respects, however, the voluntary program reflected the limits of the federal government\u2019s power, with the Justice Department constrained in the number of expensive and time-consuming pattern-or-practice investigations it can pursue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhat you\u2019re seeing is what you\u2019re likely to get,\u201d Damon Hewitt, president of the Lawyers\u2019 Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said when asked if Justice officials outlined any new strategies in the meeting with activists. The civil rights division, he added, is \u201cnot getting all they want [in funding] and they\u2019re stretched thin.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Wade Henderson, interim president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said activists brought to Garland\u2019s attention a recent Washington Post report<\/a> that found lawsuits involving police officers accused of repeated misconduct have resulted in more than $1.5 billion in settlement payments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Henderson praised the Justice Department\u2019s efforts on police reform, including the successful federal prosecution<\/a> in February of three former Minneapolis officers charged with violating Floyd\u2019s civil rights. But he added that \u201cthe passage of the George Floyd bill would have given the department more tools.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Justice Department officials declined to comment on the specifics <\/b>of the meeting, which was also attended by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, as well as Kristen Clarke, the head of the civil rights division.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cTrust in law enforcement is a cornerstone of our work to keep communities safe,\u201d Gupta said in a statement. She said the department is using funding, training, technical assistance, and data and research on officer accountability to help build that trust.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Many large police departments have banned or limited neck restraints since Floyd’s death<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Georgetown University law professor Christy Lopez, a former Justice Department official who led its investigation of the Ferguson, Mo., police<\/a> in 2014 <\/b>and 2015, said the atmosphere for police reform is still fundamentally different from where things stood before Floyd\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While some cities reversed course amid rising gun violence, pushing for more police funding<\/a>, \u201cyou have many more jurisdictions that passed new laws related to accountability for police or related to establishing alternatives to respond to mental health calls,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing this work for a long time, and I\u2019ve never seen anything like the breadth and the depth of change since Floyd.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n