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US President Donald Trump singled out Barak Obama and Joe Biden after the dismantling of Obama-era reforms on policing for failing to fix policing during their 8-years in office. On Tuesday, he signed an executive order at the White House to ban chokeholds, create a database of excessive force complaints, incentivize de-escalation training, and the hiring of mental health experts. Point to be noted that US Senator Chuck Schumer said one inadequate executive order would not make up for the Trump administration’s recent policies aimed to roll back the progress made in previous years under the administration of Barak Obama. He said, “He said President Obama did nothing on police reform. But the fact is, they made a lot of progress, and President Trump rolled it back”.

President Trump focused on many of the same politicians now presenting themselves as the solution are the same ones who have failed for decades on schools, jobs, justice, and crime. He announced the police reforms during his Rose Garden speech. Trump said, “President Obama and Vice President Biden never even tried to fix this during their eight-year period. The reason they didn’t try is they had no idea how to do it”. Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield said Trump knew he was making untrue statements. She said, “He knows that isn’t true because he has spent the past three years tearing down the very reforms the Obama-Biden administration pursued”.

The report also highlights a number of Obama-era policies that have been overturned since Trump took office, including a 2017 decision to reverse restrictions on surplus military gear that the Department of Defense could supply to police departments. The Justice Department said in 2017 that it would end the policy of investigating police departments and issuing public reports. The former Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo before his ouster that limited the use of consent decrees, which are legal agreements between police and the Justice Department that mandated reforms.