Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Joe Raedle
Topics: Donald Trump, George Floyd, US News, Politics, Police, Joe Biden, Racism
Joe Yates
Topics: Donald Trump, George Floyd, US News, Politics, Police, Joe Biden, Racism
In a bid to build back the trust between the public and police in the US, a database was created detailing misconduct on the force - but on President Donald Trump's orders, it has now been deleted.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has confirmed that its nationwide database which identifies officers in its employ who have abused their power, has been shut down by the Trump administration.
The concept of the index, which listed close to 150,000 offending federal officers and agents, was to prevent 'bad apples' from jumping ship to a new force to start over with a clean slate.
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It was created on the back of George Floyd's death in May 2020, which sparked moral outcry across the US and the world.
Derek Chauvin, at the time a police officer in Minneapolis, kneeled on Floyd's neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds after he was detained on suspicion of attempting to use a counterfeit bill.
Floyd's last words, 'I can't breathe', became a rallying cry for people protesting against police brutality and racial injustice.
Chauvin, who has since been fired as a police officer, was later found guilty of Floyd's murder and was sentenced to 22 years in prison. He was also given another 20-year sentence in July 2022 for violating Floyd's civil rights.
President Trump was first proposed the idea of creating a database to weed out corrupt officers while in office during his first term, his suggestion came in 2020 after the death of Floyd.
Former president Joe Biden acted on the proposal, and helped bring it to fruition two years later through an executive order.
But one of the dozens of executive orders that Trump has signed himself was to revoke Biden's own that saw the implementation of the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database.
Part of the reason why the Trump administration revoked the order, stated that it 'embedded deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical practices within every agency and office of the Federal Government'.
Having only officially launched in December 2023, all 90 executive branch agencies filed thousands of disciplanry record taken against its officers - dating back to 2017, a report by the DOJ stated in December.
Speaking with The Washington Post, Thomas Abt, director of the Violence Reduction Center at the University of Maryland, said: “Everyone, cops and communities alike, has an interest in keeping officers with histories of serious misconduct from rejoining the profession.
"Nonpartisan public safety reforms like these should be placed above politics and maintained across administrations."
While executive director of the National Police Accountability Project Lauren Bonds, also told the publication: "Trump has made clear through actions such as this that he doesn’t think law enforcement accountability advances public safety."