Comment President Biden plans to announce proposals on crime and policing on Thursday, an effort to show he is tackling violent crime while responding to Democrats’ desire for action after recent mass shootings and the failure of police reform efforts in Congress. In a trip to Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Biden will unveil a Safe America Plan that includes expanded law enforcement funding to allow the hiring and training of 100,000 police officers for what the administration calls “responsible community policing,” according to a White. House statement and senior administration officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the announcement. At the same time, trying to build on the momentum of last month’s passage of a bipartisan gun control law, Biden will propose nearly $3 billion to help communities clear court backlogs and solve homicides. a $15 billion grant program to prevent violent crime and redirect police resources to nonviolent cases; and $5 billion for community violence intervention programs. Taken together, the announcements underscore Biden’s attempt to balance liberals’ push for police reform and gun control with voters’ concerns about rising crime. With congressional elections looming in November, Republicans have hammered home a message that Democratic city officials are trying to destroy or eliminate police departments. Biden tried to find a middle ground. After some liberal activists adopted a “defund the police” slogan in the wake of the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis officer, Biden made it clear that he believes reform requires more funding, not less. “The answer is not to compensate the police,” he said in May. “The answer is to fund the police with the resources and training they need to protect our communities.” Biden’s proposals, which require congressional approval, amount to providing more concrete details of the $5.8 trillion 2023 budget unveiled in March. Biden will not announce new executive measures on Thursday and has acknowledged that the recent gun legislation, while including the most significant restrictions on firearms in decades, fell far short of his ambitions after mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde. Tex. Several of Biden’s proposals Thursday would focus on police interactions with people who have disabilities or are experiencing a mental health crisis, for example teaming law enforcement officers with social workers or other professionals. Some recent police shootings — or deaths of people in police custody — have involved people with mental health issues. The president continued to push Congress for further gun restrictions, including background checks for all gun sales, as well as bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. These measures have been rejected by Republicans and are unlikely to pass in the near future. Many liberal and Democratic voters strongly support more gun control, and Americans have been reeling from mass shootings in recent months, making the issue potentially resonant. Pennsylvania, which includes liberal cities and conservative rural areas, is a critical state in the upcoming midterms. Biden wanted to move in the wake of the recent gun control bill, however modest it was, one of the senior administration officials said. “He didn’t want time to pass between that and what he proposed next,” the official said. “He wanted to seize the momentum, to seize the moment, to take it further.”
