WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday announced that he would tighten standards on the provision and use of military-style equipment by local police departments, but he stopped short of curtailing the transfer of such hardware or weapons to the local authorities.
After a review of the government’s decade-old strategy of outfitting local police forces with military equipment, the White House concluded that the vast majority of these transfers strengthen local policing, but that the government should impose consistent standards in the types of hardware it offers, better training in how to use it and more thorough oversight.
Mr. Obama announced the steps at a cabinet meeting that was called to deal with lingering tensions from fiery clashes between the police and protesters in Ferguson, Mo., which broke out after a grand jury declined to indict a police officer for fatally shooting an unarmed black teenager.
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Mr. Obama is also meeting on Monday with civil rights leaders and law enforcement officials to discuss the stubborn mistrust between the police and the public in African-American communities. But the White House said that the president would not visit Ferguson this week, as a tense calm has prevailed there.
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Following two weeks of images from protests in Ferguson, Mo., where police officers deployed military gear and equipment to quell unrest, President Obama ordered a review of several federal programs that provide money and equipment to local police.
The limited nature of the White House’s response testifies to the reality that transferring military-style gear to police departments remains politically popular in Congress and with the municipalities. While Congress held hearings after the initial unrest in Ferguson last summer, it has not acted to curb its grants and transfers of such equipment.
The militarization of the police is part of a broader counterterrorism strategy of fortifying American cities, which took root after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Curtailing the transfers, experts said, would be a reversal of years of policy and has little support in Congress.
With no legislation on the horizon, Mr. Obama has focused instead on standardizing regulations across the federal agencies that supply the equipment to cities and towns. He will also seek to improve training and require “after action†reports for accidents involving federally funded equipment.
The report, the White House said, found “a lack of consistency in how federal programs are structured, implemented and audited.†Criticism of the practices swelled after the police, in full body armor and on heavily armed vehicles, confronted protesters with assault rifles.
But administration officials noted that only 4 percent of the surplus equipment that comes from the Pentagon is actually combat-ready hardware. Most of it is office equipment.
To bolster local policing, the government also announced a $263 million program that will provide up to 50,000 body cameras for the police. The video footage from these cameras could clarify disputed incidents like the deadly encounter between the teenager in Ferguson, Michael Brown, and the police officer, Darren Wilson.
The White House’s moves came on a carefully orchestrated day of meetings to telegraph a robust White House response to the unrest in Ferguson. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. was to travel to Atlanta on Monday evening to meet with law enforcement officials and community leaders, the first stop on what officials said would be a nationwide tour.
The president also announced the formation of a task force to improve local policing. Its chairmen will be the commissioner of the Philadelphia police, Charles H. Ramsey, and a leading criminal law scholar, Laurie Robinson, of George Mason University.
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