Joe Biden advocates changes in police training, funding, ending prison term for drug abusers

US
President Joe Biden, on Tuesday, discussed changes his administration is
planning to introduce in country’s law enforcement system by raising police
funding to ensure criminal justice in the states and ending jail sentence for those accused of drug abuse, during a town hall event in Wisconsin, reported news agency Reuters.

On
being asked how he and his administration would address grave issues like surging
crime rates in the US and protection of citizens, the President said that his
first step would be to prevent de-funding of the police department.

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Biden, who has been an advocate of revising police funding, added, “Today we can make changes in the legislation and I believe this should be used to make efforts in building a legitimate community policing by putting more money in our local police departments.”

The
demand of revision in police funding structures was raised during the
unfortunate police killing of a black citizen George Floyd. After the incident, some Democrats
suggested for review of local police budgets and diversion of such funding to
social and mental health services for the officers.

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While addressing the citizens, Biden also stressed on using a significant portion of the funding to introduce changes in the training module so that officers especially at local levels can learn to police situations and citizens more compassionately.

On introducing
altercations and ending prison time for drug abusers, Biden said, “We should focus on
sending drug abusers to rehabilitation centres and not jail. No one should go
to jail for a drug offence.”