President Donald Trump signs an executive order on Tuesday calling for police reform as a response to massive demonstrations demanding change following the death of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. The order which the president calls a first step includes a national best practices certification process for use of force and deescalation, a national database to track complaints against officers, funding for programs to include social workers to be sent with officers on mental health calls and the ban of chokeholds except if an officer’s life is in danger.

Palm Springs Police Chief Bryan Reyes says almost everything in the order already exists in California including standardized use of force, de-escalation, background checks, chokeholds and tracking incidents.

“That’s nothing new in California, I think what is going to be a surprise just people not realizing we have all this in place now, but it is important to have this at a national level so there’s some uniformity across the country,” says Reyes.

He says funding social workers to run out of police departments can work as a partnership, “If we can create teams like that to go out and assess things at its earliest levels we can get help to those people that need it.”

Chief Reyes says his department is committed to the community but to create change everyone must be willing to come to the table and have difficult conversations on race but most of all and listen, “It’s not just going to be a conversation about police department and racism and perceived racism or use of force, it’s far beyond police agencies.”

Palm Springs Police Chief Weighs in on Executive Order on Police Reform