Two years after the murder of George Floyd, President Joe Biden will sign, Wednesday, May 25, a decree to further supervise the police, but which does not go as far as the major police reform he had promised during his campaign.

The text provides in particular for the creation of a national register of federal and local agents to identify all reports, disciplinary procedures and complaints concerning members of the police, according to a press release from the White House which sets out the content, qualified of "historical".

American states and local authorities, which have very extensive police and judicial powers, will be "encouraged" to fill in this register and will be able to consult it.

The executive order will also order all federal agencies to review their use of force policies and restrict the use of military equipment in police operations.

It also prohibits the use, still 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 executive order will affect about 100,000 federal law enforcement officers, but the White House hopes to use federal spending to expand to more than 700,000 state and local officers.

A campaign promise

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. 

This African-American had succumbed, asphyxiated, after a policeman had pressed his knee on his neck for a long time.

Joe Biden will sign the executive order along with his 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.

"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.

With AFP and Reuters

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