President Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday encouraging police officers to limit the use of deadly force in the line of duty, as protests continue nationwide against racism and police brutality.
The order will detail the administration’s initiatives to encourage high standards for use of force, track officer misconduct, and bring in social workers and mental health professionals when responding to certain emergency calls.
The administration will use grants to incentivize police departments to maintain a high standard for use of force and create a national database for officers with records of repeated misconduct. For calls dealing with homelessness, mental illness, and addiction, the order will call on departments to work with social workers and mental health professionals.
Trump, down in national polls to Democratic presumptive nominee Joe Biden, faces pressure to take action on police reform following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, persisting even after Floyd had passed out.
The executive order also comes as Republican and Democrat lawmakers in both chambers of Congress work on separate bills proposing reforms for police departments.
Senate Republicans will unveil legislation this week to restrict the use of choke holds by police officers, among other reforms. Meanwhile, Democrats in both legislative chambers have pushed to end “qualified immunity,” which protects police officers from lawsuits, a proposal Republicans have rejected. House Democrats have introduced a wide-ranging reform package that limits those protections for law enforcement officers and proposes other reforms including banning police choke holds.