English subtitles for clip: File:President Obama hosts a Conversation on Community Policing and Criminal Justice.webm
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1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,170 The President: Well, we have had an 2 00:00:03,169 --> 00:00:06,839 excellent conversation. 3 00:00:06,840 --> 00:00:13,810 This group in part represents the 21st Century 4 00:00:13,813 --> 00:00:19,883 Policing Task Force that I put together after Ferguson 5 00:00:19,886 --> 00:00:24,326 in order for us to find constructive steps that we 6 00:00:24,324 --> 00:00:28,864 could take that law enforcement and communities 7 00:00:28,862 --> 00:00:34,472 could get behind in order to make sure that we're keeping 8 00:00:34,467 --> 00:00:39,477 our streets safe, and we are protecting and supporting 9 00:00:43,676 --> 00:00:46,276 police officers who are doing a very difficult job, 10 00:00:46,279 --> 00:00:51,589 and we can make sure that our communities are being 11 00:00:51,584 --> 00:00:55,454 treated fairly and that people have confidence that 12 00:00:55,455 --> 00:00:58,955 the law applies to everybody equally. 13 00:00:58,958 --> 00:01:04,328 Thanks to Laurie Robinson and Charles Ramsey and the 14 00:01:04,330 --> 00:01:06,730 members of that task force, we came up with a set 15 00:01:06,733 --> 00:01:08,873 of recommendations. 16 00:01:08,868 --> 00:01:13,378 And the good news is, is that over the last several 17 00:01:13,373 --> 00:01:19,913 months since the report was issued, we have seen a lot 18 00:01:19,913 --> 00:01:23,813 of law enforcement officers, a lot of chiefs, a lot of 19 00:01:23,817 --> 00:01:28,487 departments begin to examine these recommendations and 20 00:01:28,488 --> 00:01:32,928 figure out how they can implement them. 21 00:01:32,926 --> 00:01:36,326 We've seen real progress with respect to data gathering. 22 00:01:36,329 --> 00:01:39,429 We've seen real progress with respect to training. 23 00:01:39,432 --> 00:01:41,932 We've seen progress with respect to transparency and 24 00:01:41,935 --> 00:01:44,705 outreach to communities. 25 00:01:44,704 --> 00:01:51,044 The bad news is, as we saw so painfully this week, that 26 00:01:51,044 --> 00:01:52,344 this is really a hard job. 27 00:01:52,345 --> 00:01:53,375 We're not there yet. 28 00:01:53,379 --> 00:01:55,379 We're not even close to being there yet, where we 29 00:01:55,381 --> 00:01:56,581 want to be. 30 00:01:56,583 --> 00:02:03,753 We're not at a point yet where communities of color 31 00:02:03,756 --> 00:02:06,996 feel confident that their police departments are 32 00:02:06,993 --> 00:02:11,863 serving them with dignity and respect and equality. 33 00:02:11,865 --> 00:02:14,705 And we're not at the point yet where police departments 34 00:02:14,701 --> 00:02:18,901 feel adequately supported at all levels. 35 00:02:18,905 --> 00:02:24,475 So what we've done here is to build off the task force 36 00:02:24,477 --> 00:02:29,117 report and find out what's working, what's not, and 37 00:02:29,115 --> 00:02:32,415 what more do we have to do in order to bring the 38 00:02:32,418 --> 00:02:35,588 country and communities around the country together 39 00:02:35,588 --> 00:02:37,588 and make more progress on this front. 40 00:02:37,590 --> 00:02:39,830 And I'll just characterize a couple of things that have 41 00:02:39,826 --> 00:02:41,696 been identified. 42 00:02:41,694 --> 00:02:45,064 And I want to emphasize that there's still a diversity of 43 00:02:45,064 --> 00:02:46,064 views around this table. 44 00:02:46,065 --> 00:02:47,935 That was by design. 45 00:02:47,934 --> 00:02:53,444 We have police chiefs and representatives of 46 00:02:53,439 --> 00:02:56,439 rank-and-file law enforcement. 47 00:02:56,442 --> 00:03:01,812 We've got people who have been protesting just this week. 48 00:03:01,814 --> 00:03:08,154 And we have sociologists, civil rights attorneys, 49 00:03:08,154 --> 00:03:10,394 governors, state legislators. 50 00:03:10,390 --> 00:03:14,290 So as you might expect, not everybody agrees 51 00:03:14,294 --> 00:03:15,294 on everything. 52 00:03:15,295 --> 00:03:20,065 But here are the buckets of issues that everybody 53 00:03:20,066 --> 00:03:25,076 identified as worthy of more work, more study, and 54 00:03:25,071 --> 00:03:27,371 ultimately more action. 55 00:03:27,373 --> 00:03:31,843 Number one, we're going to have to do more work 56 00:03:31,844 --> 00:03:35,814 together in thinking about how we can build confidence 57 00:03:35,815 --> 00:03:42,655 that after police officers have used force, and 58 00:03:42,655 --> 00:03:46,355 particularly deadly force, that there is confidence in 59 00:03:46,359 --> 00:03:51,169 how the investigation takes place and that justice is done. 60 00:03:51,164 --> 00:03:54,164 Now, that's a complicated piece of work, but it's 61 00:03:54,167 --> 00:03:58,507 going to involve engaging with police departments and 62 00:03:58,504 --> 00:04:04,014 state's attorneys, as well as communities themselves, 63 00:04:04,010 --> 00:04:08,510 and potentially shaping a set of best practices that 64 00:04:08,514 --> 00:04:13,184 ensure when something happens that people feel 65 00:04:13,186 --> 00:04:17,186 like it's being investigated effectively and fairly both 66 00:04:17,190 --> 00:04:21,290 for the police officer, but also for the families of 67 00:04:21,294 --> 00:04:25,734 those who've been affected. 68 00:04:25,732 --> 00:04:29,632 And so one of our charges I think is to try to find 69 00:04:29,636 --> 00:04:32,636 effective ways to do that. 70 00:04:32,639 --> 00:04:38,809 Second is continuing work on working with police 71 00:04:38,811 --> 00:04:42,251 departments around training -- which we emphasized in 72 00:04:42,248 --> 00:04:44,588 the initial task force 73 00:04:44,584 --> 00:04:51,694 -- but also hiring, recruitment. 74 00:04:51,691 --> 00:04:55,331 And one of the themes that came from a number of people 75 00:04:55,328 --> 00:05:01,038 is how do we support police officers not just in terms 76 00:05:01,034 --> 00:05:03,934 of eliminating bias, but also dealing with the 77 00:05:03,936 --> 00:05:07,576 stresses and strains of the job so that they have the 78 00:05:07,573 --> 00:05:10,543 capacity to interact with communities and deescalate 79 00:05:10,543 --> 00:05:14,243 more effectively, and are there ways for us to 80 00:05:14,247 --> 00:05:15,277 resource that. 81 00:05:15,281 --> 00:05:18,621 So that was bucket number two. 82 00:05:18,618 --> 00:05:21,058 Third is data. 83 00:05:21,054 --> 00:05:23,994 Although we put forward a data initiative that is 84 00:05:23,990 --> 00:05:28,030 beginning to gather information about what's 85 00:05:28,027 --> 00:05:30,027 happening in police departments so that they can 86 00:05:30,029 --> 00:05:34,029 do a better job managing their force and ensure that 87 00:05:34,033 --> 00:05:36,503 what they're doing is effective, and so that 88 00:05:36,502 --> 00:05:39,342 communities can feel confident that they know 89 00:05:39,338 --> 00:05:42,378 what's happening with police forces, generally speaking, 90 00:05:45,745 --> 00:05:49,745 police departments, sheriff departments, law enforcement 91 00:05:49,749 --> 00:05:54,559 offices around the country either don't have good data 92 00:05:54,554 --> 00:05:58,524 collection or it's just in a form that people can't use. 93 00:05:58,524 --> 00:06:01,524 Now, I don't necessarily fault all the departments on 94 00:06:01,527 --> 00:06:04,467 that because I know here in the federal government, with 95 00:06:04,464 --> 00:06:08,604 all the resources we have, it has been really hard to 96 00:06:08,601 --> 00:06:12,241 just get our data systems and IT and all that set up. 97 00:06:12,238 --> 00:06:16,478 Some of you may remember we had a little problem with my 98 00:06:16,476 --> 00:06:18,146 health care initiative -- 99 00:06:18,144 --> 00:06:19,144 (laughter) 100 00:06:19,145 --> 00:06:20,145 -- when it came 101 00:06:20,146 --> 00:06:22,116 to data and computers and so forth. 102 00:06:22,115 --> 00:06:26,515 So imagine if you've got a small county, small budget, 103 00:06:26,519 --> 00:06:29,419 they've got old computers, they don't know how to 104 00:06:29,422 --> 00:06:30,422 work systems. 105 00:06:30,423 --> 00:06:35,433 But this is an area where we think we can actually make 106 00:06:35,428 --> 00:06:40,538 real progress -- is to help departments all across the 107 00:06:40,533 --> 00:06:46,443 country to put their data in a way that they can use, but 108 00:06:46,439 --> 00:06:50,309 also creates greater systems of accountability and so we 109 00:06:50,309 --> 00:06:51,309 understand what happens. 110 00:06:51,310 --> 00:06:55,180 And one of the encouraging things for me is, is that 111 00:06:55,181 --> 00:06:59,621 this is an area, when I was a state legislator, I was 112 00:06:59,619 --> 00:07:02,819 able to work with the Fraternal Order of Police 113 00:07:02,822 --> 00:07:09,162 and the state police organizations, as well as 114 00:07:09,162 --> 00:07:12,132 activists to create a racial profiling bill that gathered 115 00:07:12,131 --> 00:07:18,871 data and allowed law enforcement to identify 116 00:07:18,871 --> 00:07:20,871 where do they think there's a problem. 117 00:07:20,873 --> 00:07:23,473 And because of that cooperation we've seen 118 00:07:23,476 --> 00:07:26,146 improvement in Illinois around these areas. 119 00:07:26,145 --> 00:07:29,515 And that's something that I think we all have to spend 120 00:07:29,515 --> 00:07:30,515 some time thinking about. 121 00:07:30,516 --> 00:07:36,486 Next, we're going to continue to examine how we, 122 00:07:36,489 --> 00:07:40,429 as a federal government, can work effectively with local 123 00:07:40,426 --> 00:07:46,136 communities, because we've got 18,000 different law 124 00:07:46,132 --> 00:07:50,632 enforcement entities, and we're not going to be able 125 00:07:50,636 --> 00:07:57,506 to do for a sheriff's department or a police 126 00:07:57,510 --> 00:08:00,380 department what it needs to be doing -- what are the 127 00:08:00,379 --> 00:08:04,749 best ways for us to help them do the right thing when 128 00:08:04,750 --> 00:08:07,520 they want to do the right thing, and are there ways in 129 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:10,720 which we can support communities to lift up 130 00:08:10,723 --> 00:08:14,693 problems when departments are unwilling to adopt some 131 00:08:14,694 --> 00:08:16,894 of the best practices that are out there. 132 00:08:16,896 --> 00:08:19,296 So we're going to spend time looking on that. 133 00:08:19,298 --> 00:08:23,298 And finally, there was broad agreement that this needs to 134 00:08:23,302 --> 00:08:25,102 be sustained. 135 00:08:25,104 --> 00:08:27,704 I didn't hear anybody around this table suggest that this 136 00:08:27,707 --> 00:08:30,307 problem is going to be solved overnight. 137 00:08:30,309 --> 00:08:35,319 Because the roots of the problems we saw this week 138 00:08:37,683 --> 00:08:42,653 date back not just decades, date back centuries. 139 00:08:45,558 --> 00:08:48,928 There are cultural issues, and there are issues of race 140 00:08:48,928 --> 00:08:54,338 in this country, and poverty, and a whole range 141 00:08:54,333 --> 00:09:00,673 of problems that will not be solved overnight. 142 00:09:00,673 --> 00:09:07,413 But what we can do is to set up the kinds of respectful 143 00:09:07,413 --> 00:09:10,853 conversations that we've had here -- not just in 144 00:09:10,850 --> 00:09:15,350 Washington, but around the country -- so that we 145 00:09:15,354 --> 00:09:18,124 institutionalize a process of continually getting 146 00:09:18,124 --> 00:09:21,224 better, and holding ourselves accountable, and 147 00:09:21,227 --> 00:09:27,367 holding ourselves responsible for getting better. 148 00:09:27,366 --> 00:09:29,906 And I think we've done that with the task force. 149 00:09:29,902 --> 00:09:33,802 But what's been apparent is, is that it's not enough just 150 00:09:33,806 --> 00:09:36,606 or us to have a task force or report and then follow up 151 00:09:36,609 --> 00:09:37,839 through our departments. 152 00:09:37,843 --> 00:09:40,843 We have to push this out into communities so that 153 00:09:40,846 --> 00:09:47,256 they feel ownership for some of the good ideas that have 154 00:09:47,253 --> 00:09:49,453 been floated around this table. 155 00:09:49,455 --> 00:09:52,555 So I just want to say how encouraged I am by 156 00:09:52,558 --> 00:09:54,198 the conversation. 157 00:09:54,193 --> 00:10:00,063 To the American people, I want you to know that this 158 00:10:00,066 --> 00:10:06,676 is a pretty representative group of the folks who've 159 00:10:06,672 --> 00:10:11,482 been involved in the debate in this issue and have 160 00:10:11,477 --> 00:10:15,047 practical knowledge and are thinking each and every day 161 00:10:15,047 --> 00:10:19,657 about how we can prevent the tragedies we saw in Baton 162 00:10:19,652 --> 00:10:26,322 Rouge and in Minnesota and in Dallas. 163 00:10:26,325 --> 00:10:30,795 And the conversation that took place around this table 164 00:10:30,796 --> 00:10:35,406 is very different than the one that you see on a 165 00:10:35,401 --> 00:10:39,871 day-to-day or hourly basis in the media. 166 00:10:39,872 --> 00:10:44,442 And one of the things that I encouraged everybody here to 167 00:10:44,443 --> 00:10:49,453 do was to try to be as thoughtful and respectful 168 00:10:52,551 --> 00:10:55,391 outside of this room as folks were to each other 169 00:10:55,388 --> 00:11:00,928 during the course of this conversation, because I 170 00:11:00,926 --> 00:11:04,266 think the American people would feel more encouraged. 171 00:11:04,263 --> 00:11:09,733 As I said yesterday, I do not want to gloss over the 172 00:11:09,735 --> 00:11:15,005 fact that not only are there very real problems but there 173 00:11:15,007 --> 00:11:19,107 are still deep divisions about how to solve 174 00:11:19,111 --> 00:11:21,751 these problems. 175 00:11:21,747 --> 00:11:24,287 There's no doubt that police departments still feel 176 00:11:24,283 --> 00:11:28,483 embattled and unjustly accused. 177 00:11:28,487 --> 00:11:31,457 And there is no doubt that minority communities, 178 00:11:31,457 --> 00:11:35,827 communities of color still feel like it just takes too 179 00:11:35,828 --> 00:11:39,498 long to do what's right. 180 00:11:39,498 --> 00:11:47,008 And the pace of change is going to feel too fast for 181 00:11:47,006 --> 00:11:49,076 some and too slow for others. 182 00:11:49,075 --> 00:11:57,885 And sadly, because this is a huge country that is very 183 00:11:57,883 --> 00:12:03,123 diverse and we have a lot of police departments, I think 184 00:12:03,122 --> 00:12:06,192 it is fair to say that we will see more tension in 185 00:12:06,192 --> 00:12:11,402 police -- between police and communities this month, next 186 00:12:11,397 --> 00:12:16,207 month, next year, for quite some time. 187 00:12:18,971 --> 00:12:22,771 The one thing I think we all have to do, though, is not 188 00:12:22,775 --> 00:12:24,775 paper over those differences or paper over those 189 00:12:24,777 --> 00:12:29,617 problems, but we do have to try to constructively solve 190 00:12:29,615 --> 00:12:34,625 them and not simply win talking point arguments and 191 00:12:37,590 --> 00:12:42,600 not just give voice to what we're feeling at the moment. 192 00:12:48,601 --> 00:12:53,671 We have to, as a country, sit down and just grind it 193 00:12:53,672 --> 00:12:56,872 out, solve these problems. 194 00:12:56,876 --> 00:13:01,416 And I think if we have that kind of sustained 195 00:13:01,413 --> 00:13:04,153 commitment, I'm confident we can do so. 196 00:13:04,150 --> 00:13:07,650 So thank you all for participating. 197 00:13:07,653 --> 00:13:09,253 It was a terrific conversation. 198 00:13:09,255 --> 00:13:16,695 And they've all promised to take Michelle's call if 199 00:13:16,695 --> 00:13:18,935 she's wondering why I was late for dinner. 200 00:13:18,931 --> 00:13:20,401 (laughter)