President Donald Trump issued an executive order on April 28, 2025, to increase military weaponry for police, to expand prison capacity, and to enhance legal protections for law enforcement officers' "aggressive" actions.
The executive order authorizes military support for local law enforcement operations. It threatens to prosecute state and local officials who seek to regulate police departments' use of their powers or who work to integrate police forces.
"President Trump's executive order on policing threatens to impose an expanded era of mass incarceration, while signaling to police nationwide that there will be no federal oversight and no consequences for their rights violations," said John Raphling, associate US director at Human Rights Watch. "Trump's efforts to deploy military personnel in domestic law enforcement roles and to prosecute local leaders who oppose his policies are a recipe for abuse and impunity, not greater public safety."
