Police Reform Failed In Congress, So Biden Takes What He Can Get

The NPR Politics Podcast

NPR

Politics, Daily News, News

4.5 • 24.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2022

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

An opt-in police misconduct database and new conduct standards for federal police: President Biden's police reform executive action enacts reforms that fall well short of what advocates hoped for. Lawmakers previously failed to agree on a more substantial effort.

This episode: congressional correspondent Kelsey Snell, White House correspondent Tamara Keith, national justice correspondent Carrie Johnson.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Ali Edwards from Eugene, Oregon, and I am getting ready to head to Star Wars celebration
0:07.6	in Los Angeles with my Star Wars fanatic 20-year-old son, Simon. We are ridiculously excited.
0:17.3	This podcast was recorded at 107 pm on Thursday, May 26th.
0:23.2	Things may have changed by the time you hear it, but I can guarantee you that my son, Simon,
0:28.9	will still be a Star Wars fan no matter when it happens. Okay, here's the show.
0:34.6	Oh, Tam, I feel like this was a time stamp just for you. And I am ridiculously excited that the
0:42.4	OB1 mini series or whatever it's called is coming out on Disney Plus this weekend. I know what I'll
0:49.0	be doing. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics podcast. I'm Kelsey Snelli, cover Congress.
0:54.4	I'm Tamer Keath, I cover the White House, and I'm Carrie Johnson National Justice correspondent.
0:59.8	President Biden has signed a new executive order on policing. Relatives of George Floyd and
1:05.9	Breonna Taylor were on hand for the ceremony at the White House, both were killed by police in 2020.
1:12.2	It's not about their death, but what we do in their memory, that matters. The purpose.
1:19.9	I'm glad I have you both here because I really want to get into right off the top what the
1:23.9	order does and does not do. We know the executive order instructs federal law enforcement agencies
1:30.4	to revise their use of force policies. Tam, how do this the White House say this is work?
1:36.0	Well, so the important word in that sentence you just stated is federal. Because this is an
1:41.9	executive order, it pretty much just applies to the things that the president has any control over,
1:48.4	which is federal law enforcement agencies. So it revises use of force policies to try to minimize
1:56.9	chokeholds, no knock warrants. These are tactics that really came to light with the deaths of
2:03.9	George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. It also restricts the transfer of military equipment to local
2:10.7	police forces from the military and federal government. And it creates a database, a federal database
2:19.3	of officers who were fired for misconduct. Okay, so some of this is stuff that Congress was looking
	...

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