Leid Stories - Unifier-in-Chief Obama Shines A Light on Problems Already Known - 07.14.16

President Barack Obama met for more than four hours at the White House with a diverse group of leaders yesterday—the same day he spoke at the funeral of five police officers killed by an ex-soldier in a sniper attack July 7 in Dallas. The Unifier-in-Chief said he wanted their ideas and input on how to build “trust” between police and the communities they serve, the main focus of The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing he created by executive order in December 2014.

The task force in May last year delivered a 116-page report, with recommendations for nationwide changes in six key areas—building trust and legitimacy; policy and oversight; technology and social media; community policing and crime reduction; training and education; and officer wellness and safety. Yet, Obama continues to plead for deeper understanding of, and solutions for, the “trust problem.”

It’s not as if there’s a dearth of information about law-enforcement (and especially its problems); the task force’s report pales in comparison to books, articles and scholarly papers on the subject. Why, then, is Obama stalling on implementing his own task force’s—and other credible--recommendations?