In the wake of the controversial grand jury decisions not to indict the police officers involved in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, the White House will be conducting an independent review of whether grand juries are best suited to manage cases of deadly force.
According to The Hill, President Barack Obama set up the panel late last month as protesters took to the streets of New York claiming that the Garner case demonstrated systematic racial bias in the criminal justice system.
"One of the things that we will be looking at as a task force is independent review of these kinds of cases and how should that take place," Philadelphia Police Chief Charles Ramsey, who is co-chairing the panel, told NPR's "Morning Edition" on Tuesday, The Hill reported.
"But, we also want to make sure that everything we do protects everyone's rights and that includes the rights of the police officer, as well."
Ramsey said that what "people are concerned about is how these cases are reviewed."
"Is a grand jury, for an example, the proper way of doing it, with the district attorney's involvement and so forth?" he asked, according to The Hill.
In the aftermath of the Garner decision, Obama said that there are "too many incidences where people just do not have confidence that folks are being treated fairly," The Hill reported.
"When anybody in this country is not being treated equally under the law, that's a problem, and it's my job as president to solve it."
The panel will also be looking at whether there should be changes to the management of federal grants that compel police departments to adopt new training procedures.
"There are 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies in this country and the federal government can't order any of them to do specific things," said Laurie Robinson, a former assistant attorney general who is co-chairing the panel with Ramsey, according to The Hill.
"But, there are levers that can be pulled," Robinson added. "For example, tying change to federal grants — like specific changes that the way training is done as a requirement for receiving federal grants in the area of criminal justice."
Robinson also said that the government is looking to find a way to help police officers do a better job to "de-escalate confrontations."
"We've seen in many of the incidents that have sparked controversy that de-escalation could have been a very helpful skill for the officers to have had," she said, according to The Hill.
"Oftentimes, in training, there's a lot of technical training, how to drive cars, how to shoot. But people skills are so critical."
Ramsey said he had some concerns that police training may not be spending "enough time on the educational component — having officers understand the role of police in a democratic society," The Hill reported.
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