• On Dec. 1, the White House released a review of federal funding and programs that provide equipment to local law enforcement agencies. President Barack Obama ordered the review in August, after the shooting of Michael Brown—an unarmed black teenager shot and killed by white police officer Darren Wilson—in Ferguson, Mo., and protests and unrest that followed it. The report finds a lack of consistency in how federal programs are structured, implemented, and audited and identifies four areas of further focus to ensure that federal programs maximize the safety and security of police officers and the communities they serve: local community engagement, federal coordination and oversight, training requirements, and the community policing model. Obama also proposed a three-year, $263-million investment package that would increase the use of body-worn cameras on law enforcement officers, expand training for law enforcement agencies, add more resources for police department reform, and multiply the number of cities where the Department of Justice facilitates community and local law enforcement agency engagement. The initiative, a 50 percent match to states and localities that purchase body-worn cameras, could help purchase 50,000 cameras, according to whitehouse.gov.
This article appears in Dec 4-11, 2014.
