Trump signs executive order on police reform

President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday encouraging police departments to improve training — a step critics say falls short of what is needed to curb police officers’ use of force against nonwhites.

The order comes as the president faces tremendous pressure to take action following the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police last month.

In a Rose Garden ceremony, which at times sounded like a campaign speech, Trump largely defended police officers, saying Americans “demand law and order. They may not say it, they may not be talking about it,” he said, “but that’s what they want.”

The text of the order is available here.

The order will create a database to track police officers with multiple instances of misconduct, and use federal grants to encourage departments to meet certain higher certification standards on use of force.