President Biden on Wednesday welcomed local police chiefs and law enforcement officials to the White House to discuss his administration’s efforts to fight crime, looking to rebut the narrative pushed by former President Trump and other Republicans that violent crime is rampant, the Hill reports. “As president, public safety and crime reduction is a top priority for my administration and for me, and it has been for a long time back when I was chairman of the Judiciary Committee,” Biden said in remarks to police leaders. To support the remarks made by Biden, the White House noted the country saw its largest annual increase in murders ever recorded in 2020, while there has been a decrease in homicides during the Biden administration. Officials also pointed to millions of dollars investments in local police departments through the American Rescue Plan, a massive spending bill signed into law in 2021 that passed with only Democratic votes. The money has been spent on recruiting more officers and bolstering local budgets that were strained during the coronavirus pandemic.
While Biden rejected calls to “defund the police” that followed the 2020 killing of George Floyd, he supports accountability, officials said, noting that in 2022, he signed an executive order intended to increase police accountability, which established a national database of officers who have been fired for misconduct and requires federal agencies to update their policies on use of force. His Justice Department has also been partnering with local law enforcement to crack down on gun violence. “Our plan is working, but we still have much more to do as everyone at this table knows,” Biden said.