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The President: Well, we
have had an
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excellent conversation.
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This group in part
represents the 21st Century
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Policing Task Force that I
put together after Ferguson
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in order for us to find
constructive steps that we
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could take that law
enforcement and communities
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could get behind in order to
make sure that we're keeping
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our streets safe, and we are
protecting and supporting
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police officers who are
doing a very difficult job,
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and we can make sure that
our communities are being
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treated fairly and that
people have confidence that
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the law applies to
everybody equally.
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Thanks to Laurie Robinson
and Charles Ramsey and the
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members of that task force,
we came up with a set
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of recommendations.
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And the good news is, is
that over the last several
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months since the report was
issued, we have seen a lot
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of law enforcement officers,
a lot of chiefs, a lot of
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departments begin to examine
these recommendations and
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figure out how they
can implement them.
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We've seen real progress
with respect to data gathering.
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We've seen real progress
with respect to training.
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We've seen progress with
respect to transparency and
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outreach to communities.
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The bad news is, as we saw
so painfully this week, that
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this is really a hard job.
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We're not there yet.
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We're not even close to
being there yet, where we
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want to be.
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We're not at a point yet
where communities of color
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feel confident that their
police departments are
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serving them with dignity
and respect and equality.
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And we're not at the point
yet where police departments
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feel adequately
supported at all levels.
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So what we've done here is
to build off the task force
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report and find out what's
working, what's not, and
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what more do we have to
do in order to bring the
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country and communities
around the country together
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and make more progress
on this front.
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And I'll just characterize a
couple of things that have
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been identified.
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And I want to emphasize that
there's still a diversity of
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views around this table.
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That was by design.
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We have police chiefs
and representatives of
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rank-and-file
law enforcement.
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We've got people who have
been protesting just this week.
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And we have sociologists,
civil rights attorneys,
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governors, state
legislators.
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So as you might expect,
not everybody agrees
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on everything.
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But here are the buckets
of issues that everybody
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identified as worthy of
more work, more study, and
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ultimately more action.
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Number one, we're going
to have to do more work
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together in thinking about
how we can build confidence
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that after police officers
have used force, and
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particularly deadly force,
that there is confidence in
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how the investigation takes
place and that justice is done.
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Now, that's a complicated
piece of work, but it's
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going to involve engaging
with police departments and
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state's attorneys, as well
as communities themselves,
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and potentially shaping a
set of best practices that
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ensure when something
happens that people feel
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like it's being investigated
effectively and fairly both
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for the police officer, but
also for the families of
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those who've been affected.
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And so one of our charges
I think is to try to find
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effective ways to do that.
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Second is continuing work
on working with police
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departments around training
-- which we emphasized in
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the initial task force
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-- but also hiring, recruitment.
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And one of the themes that
came from a number of people
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is how do we support police
officers not just in terms
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of eliminating bias, but
also dealing with the
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stresses and strains of the
job so that they have the
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capacity to interact with
communities and deescalate
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more effectively, and
are there ways for us to
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resource that.
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So that was
bucket number two.
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Third is data.
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Although we put forward a
data initiative that is
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beginning to gather
information about what's
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happening in police
departments so that they can
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do a better job managing
their force and ensure that
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what they're doing is
effective, and so that
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communities can feel
confident that they know
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what's happening with police
forces, generally speaking,
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police departments, sheriff
departments, law enforcement
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offices around the country
either don't have good data
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collection or it's just in a
form that people can't use.
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Now, I don't necessarily
fault all the departments on
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that because I know here in
the federal government, with
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all the resources we have,
it has been really hard to
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just get our data systems
and IT and all that set up.
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Some of you may remember we
had a little problem with my
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health care initiative --
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(laughter)
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-- when it came
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to data and computers
and so forth.
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So imagine if you've got a
small county, small budget,
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they've got old computers,
they don't know how to
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work systems.
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But this is an area where we
think we can actually make
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real progress -- is to help
departments all across the
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country to put their data in
a way that they can use, but
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also creates greater systems
of accountability and so we
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understand what happens.
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And one of the encouraging
things for me is, is that
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this is an area, when I was
a state legislator, I was
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able to work with the
Fraternal Order of Police
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and the state police
organizations, as well as
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activists to create a racial
profiling bill that gathered
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data and allowed law
enforcement to identify
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where do they think
there's a problem.
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And because of that
cooperation we've seen
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improvement in Illinois
around these areas.
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And that's something that I
think we all have to spend
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some time thinking about.
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Next, we're going to
continue to examine how we,
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as a federal government, can
work effectively with local
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communities, because we've
got 18,000 different law
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enforcement entities, and
we're not going to be able
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to do for a sheriff's
department or a police
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department what it needs to
be doing -- what are the
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best ways for us to help
them do the right thing when
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they want to do the right
thing, and are there ways in
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which we can support
communities to lift up
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problems when departments
are unwilling to adopt some
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of the best practices
that are out there.
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So we're going to spend
time looking on that.
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And finally, there was broad
agreement that this needs to
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be sustained.
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I didn't hear anybody around
this table suggest that this
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problem is going to
be solved overnight.
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Because the roots of the
problems we saw this week
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date back not just decades,
date back centuries.
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There are cultural issues,
and there are issues of race
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in this country, and
poverty, and a whole range
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of problems that will
not be solved overnight.
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But what we can do is to set
up the kinds of respectful
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conversations that we've
had here -- not just in
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Washington, but around
the country -- so that we
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institutionalize a process
of continually getting
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better, and holding
ourselves accountable, and
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holding ourselves
responsible for getting better.
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And I think we've done
that with the task force.
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But what's been apparent is,
is that it's not enough just
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or us to have a task force
or report and then follow up
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through our departments.
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We have to push this out
into communities so that
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they feel ownership for some
of the good ideas that have
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been floated
around this table.
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So I just want to say how
encouraged I am by
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the conversation.
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To the American people, I
want you to know that this
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is a pretty representative
group of the folks who've
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been involved in the debate
in this issue and have
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practical knowledge and are
thinking each and every day
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about how we can prevent the
tragedies we saw in Baton
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Rouge and in Minnesota
and in Dallas.
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And the conversation that
took place around this table
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is very different than
the one that you see on a
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day-to-day or hourly
basis in the media.
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And one of the things that I
encouraged everybody here to
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do was to try to be as
thoughtful and respectful
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outside of this room as
folks were to each other
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during the course of this
conversation, because I
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think the American people
would feel more encouraged.
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As I said yesterday, I do
not want to gloss over the
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fact that not only are there
very real problems but there
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are still deep divisions
about how to solve
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these problems.
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There's no doubt that police
departments still feel
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embattled and
unjustly accused.
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And there is no doubt that
minority communities,
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communities of color still
feel like it just takes too
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long to do what's right.
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And the pace of change is
going to feel too fast for
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some and too
slow for others.
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And sadly, because this is
a huge country that is very
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diverse and we have a lot of
police departments, I think
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it is fair to say that we
will see more tension in
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police -- between police and
communities this month, next
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month, next year,
for quite some time.
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The one thing I think we all
have to do, though, is not
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paper over those differences
or paper over those
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problems, but we do have to
try to constructively solve
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them and not simply win
talking point arguments and
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not just give voice to what
we're feeling at the moment.
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We have to, as a country,
sit down and just grind it
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out, solve these problems.
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And I think if we have
that kind of sustained
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commitment, I'm
confident we can do so.
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So thank you all
for participating.
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It was a terrific
conversation.
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And they've all promised
to take Michelle's call if
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she's wondering why I
was late for dinner.
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(laughter)
