Opinion - How Trump has reversed his own first-term police reforms

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President Trump struck a conciliatory tone in June 2020, just weeks after the murder of George Floyd, when he signed an executive order on police reform. The order laid the groundwork for what would later become the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database.

“Reducing crime and raising [police] standards are not opposite goals,” Trump stated. “They’re not mutually exclusive.”

That tone and vision are now gone. In his second term, Trump has reversed course on three primary police reform initiatives he previously either supported or allowed to continue. His actions signal not only a policy shift, but a full-scale regression that is likely undermining both public trust and law enforcement effectiveness.

For one, Trump killed the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database on his first day back in office. A compilation of the disciplinary records of nearly 150,000 federal law enforcement officers dating back to 2018, the database had afforded all 90 executive branch agencies the ability to search for “wandering officers,” those who move from department to department leaving behind a trail of misconduct and other disciplinary issues. By eliminating this database, Trump is making it easier for problem officers to escape scrutiny and transfer to other federal departments.

The White House defended the move, stating, “President Trump rescinded the order creating this database on Day One because he is committed to giving our brave men and women of law enforcement the tools they need to stop crime.” Yet eliminating accountability mechanisms does not make law enforcement stronger. It makes the police less credible.

Second, Trump is gutting his Justice Department’s ability to investigate and intervene in local departments that exhibit a “pattern or practice” of unconstitutional policing. He dismissed consent decrees against both the Louisville and Minneapolis police departments, while retracting the findings of constitutional violations into several departments, including Phoenix, Memphis, Trenton, N.J., Oklahoma City, Mount Vernon, N.Y. and the Louisiana State Police.

This is a departure from Trump’s first administration, which allowed consent decrees in the Baltimore and Chicago police departments to continue with their ongoing interventions. Trump’s first-term Justice Department even launched its own “pattern or practice” investigation into the Springfield, Mass. police department in 2018. The rhetoric and actions from his second term indicate that such efforts are highly unlikely now.

A few dozen police departments have entered into settlements or consent decrees in which obligatory changes are monitored by judicial oversight. While reforms in some of those departments have been difficult to sustain due to internal and local political resistance, there is evidence that true organizational transformation occurred in others.

Finally, Trump issued another executive order that rescinded a 2022 requirement that all federal law enforcement officers wear body cameras. Both the Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have since ended their body camera programs. A DEA statement suggested these actions were made in order to be “consistent” with the recent Trump executive order.

Body cameras are now more common than not and nearly ubiquitous among large local, county and state police agencies. The preponderance of evidence from nearly a decade of research suggests that officers and the public alike overwhelmingly support the technology. Body cameras have been associated with reductions in use of force and complaints against officers, as well as increased evidentiary value for criminal prosecutions and discerning the veracity of citizen complaints — allowing departments to either discipline or clear accused officers.

All three of these moves represent a concerning backslide. Trump once said police reform and public safety were not mutually exclusive. He was right.

Many of the byproducts of reform, including improved oversight and transparency as well as perceived police legitimacy, likely have a positive effect on an agency’s effectiveness and reinforce its ability to fight crime. Impeding police reform efforts, which these actions are surely doing, could have consequences in the form of rising crime.

A retreat from police reform is not a strength. It’s a liability.

John Shjarback is an associate professor in the Department of Law and Justice Studies at Rowan University. His research focuses on issues of American policing. His book “Chasing Change in Camden: Police Reform in One of America’s Most Violent Cities” will be released in September.

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