Trump to unveil police reform proposals that fall short of what activists have demanded

President Trump plans to take executive action Tuesday that would provide new federal funding incentives for local police departments to beef up training over the use of force and strengthen a national database to track misconduct, according to senior administration officials.

Trump’s order, the product of collaboration with law enforcement groups and families of suspects killed by police, aims to address the mass protests over police brutality that have convulsed American cities. Yet even as the president described his measures as “pretty comprehensive,” they are expected to fall far short of the kind of sweeping reforms that activists from Black Lives Matter and other social justice groups have demanded — such as significantly reducing funding for police departments and directing the money to social programs.

Administration officials emphasized that Trump’s approach would instead seek to leverage federal grant money to encourage local departments to bolster training and certification around a set of national “best practices.” Departments that pursue such goals would move to the front of the line for the grant funding and “you don’t necessarily have to demonize them or withdraw funds,” said a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to brief reporters ahead of Trump’s announcement.

“The overall goal is we want law and order, and we want it done fairly, justly — we want it done safely,” Trump said at the White House on Monday. “It’s about law and order, but it’s about justice, also.”

Aides said the executive action is the result of months of deliberation by a policing commission Trump established in late December, well before the killing of George Floyd, the black man whose death three weeks ago at the hands of Minneapolis police sparked nationwide protests. Trump intends to use a White House event Tuesday to call on Congress to pass legislative reforms, but he felt compelled to act to “turn the anger in the country now into action and hopefully bring some unification and some healing,” another administration official said on the briefing call.