Joe Biden will sign Wednesday, two years after the murder of George Floyd, an executive order to further regulate federal law enforcement, but which does not go as far as the major police reform he had promised during his campaign .
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The text provides in particular for the creation of a national register to list all reports, disciplinary procedures and complaints concerning members of the federal police, according to a press release from the White House which sets out the content, described as “historic “.
American states and local authorities, with very extensive police and judicial powers, will be “encouraged” to also fill in this register, and will be able to consult it.
The decree also prohibits the use, again at the federal level, of carotid strangulation or compression techniques, except in exceptional situations. It also restricts the possibility of entering a place without warning.
The Biden administration will also ask federal law enforcement agencies to generalize the use of body cameras during arrests or searches, and to release the images quickly in the event of a fatal accident.
The decree also imposes the use of lethal force only when it is “necessary”, and restricts the use of military equipment during police operations.
The date of the signing of this “Executive Order” is symbolic, two years after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which had triggered huge demonstrations against racism.
Joe Biden will sign the executive order along with family members, as well as families of other victims of police brutality, a senior White House official said in a press interview. He said law enforcement officials would also attend the ceremony.
George Floyd, an African-American, had succumbed, asphyxiated, after a police officer had pressed his knee on his neck for a long time.
“If the nation is to heal, we must recognize that deadly interactions with law enforcement disproportionately affect black or dark-skinned people,” the White House commented.
Joe Biden, in his campaign for the presidency, had promised a deep reform of the police, passing by the law and not by the instrument, more limited, of the decree which is only necessary at the level of the federal administration.
But the Democratic president, whose party does not have a sufficient parliamentary majority, did not succeed, to the great disappointment of associations fighting against racism and against police violence.
