Joe Biden to sign order on police reform 2 years after George Floyd’s death

Nearly two years after African-American George Floyd was killed by a white police officer in a Minneapolis street, US President Joe Biden will on Wednesday sign an executive order further regulating federal law enforcement.

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In a press release, the White House called the move “historic”, but the new executive order does not go as far as the major police reform Biden promised during his election campaign.

According to the administration, the text provides for the creation of a national register to list all reports, disciplinary procedures and complaints concerning members of federal law enforcement agencies.

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States and local authorities in the United States, which are endowed with extensive powers in matters of law enforcement, will be “encouraged” to also join the register, and will be able to consult it.

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The order also prohibits the use, again at the federal level, of carotid artery strangulation or compression techniques, except in exceptional situations.

It also limits law enforcement’s ability to enter a property without due warning, a controversial policy known as “no knock.”

In September, the Justice Department curtailed federal agents’ use of no-knock warrants — which allow law enforcement agents to enter a home without announcing their presence — and updated its policy to prohibit agents from using chokeholds in most circumstances.

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But extending such rules to local police is more challenging, and White House officials have spent months in negotiations with civil rights groups and police organizations.

The resulting set of policies is less extensive than originally sought, not to mention delayed by a year.