Obama: 'Now is the moment' for police to make changes

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama said Monday the deaths of unarmed black men in Missouri and New York show law enforcement needs to change practices to build trust in minority communities, as a White House task force called for independent, outside investigations when police use deadly force.

The president said last year's deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York City exposed "deep-rooted frustration in many communities of color around the need for fair and just law enforcement." He said a policing task force he appointed found it is important for law enforcement to improve training, data collection and cooperation with the communities they cover.

"The moment is now for us to make these changes," Obama said from the White House during a meeting with members of the task force, who worked for three months to develop the recommendations. "We have a great opportunity coming out of some great conflict and tragedy to really transform how we think about community-law enforcement relations so that everybody feels safer and our law enforcement officers feel -- rather than being embattled -- feel fully supported. We need to seize that opportunity."

The task force made 63 recommendations after holding seven public hearings across the country that included testimony from more than 100 people. The panel also met with leaders of groups advocating for the rights of blacks, Hispanics, Asians, veterans, gays, the disabled and others.

Obama said the task force found the need for more police training to reduce bias and help officers deal with stressful situations. He recognized a particularly controversial recommendation would be the need for independent investigations in fatal police shootings.

"The importance of making sure that there's a sense of accountability when in fact law enforcement is involved in a deadly shooting is something that I think communities across the board are going to be considering," Obama said.

Specifically, the task force recommended external, independent criminal investigations and review by outside prosecutors when police use force that results in death or anyone dies in police custody, instead of the internal investigations that are the policy of some law enforcement agencies.

The task force suggested a multi-agency probe involving state and local investigators or referring an investigation to neighboring jurisdictions or the next higher level of government.

Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, said an outside investigation of a police-involved shooting may make sense in limited circumstances when a police department has few resources. But in the vast majority of cases, he said, it is unnecessary and perhaps even counterproductive.

"I think it helps to drive a wedge between a local police department and the community it serves -- which is exactly contrary to what the intent of this police task force was supposed to be," said Johnson, whose organization is an umbrella group of police unions. "I think it sends a message that your local police can't be trusted."

The task force echoed calls from officials including Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director James Comey for more complete recordkeeping about the numbers of police-involved shootings across the country.

Such data is reported by local law enforcement on a voluntary basis, and there is no central or reliable repository for those statistics.

"There's no reason for us not to have this data available," said Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, a task force co-chairman, who said he was surprised to learn no reliable records were kept.

Obama earlier had called for Congress to help fund the purchase of 50,000 body cameras for police to wear and record their interactions with the public.

But the task force found the cameras raise extraordinarily complex legal and privacy issues.

Associated Press reporters Alicia Caldwell and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.