Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has pledged, if elected, to transform American policing, using the Justice Department’s power to hold entire cities accountable for police misconduct and advocate passage of legislation lowering the bar for filing civil-rights cases against police officers. As is the case on other major policy and issues, Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden are offering voters sharply divergent views on racial bias in law enforcement and how the government should respond to ongoing protests across the country. Attorney General William Barr and Jeff Sessions, Mr. Trump’s first attorney general, significantly curtailed wide-ranging federal investigations of police departments, known as pattern and practice probes, believing it was unfair for the Justice Department to force expensive reforms on local taxpayers. The administration has focused instead on providing police departments with money and resources for curbing violent crime. The Justice Department is investigating whether officers involved in several recent shootings of Black people violated their civil rights, but it has shown a reluctance to pursue broader investigations of the police agencies for which they work.

Source: Wall Street Journal September 12, 2020 14:03 UTC