WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Barack Obama is focusing on the “disintegration of trust” between the police and the communities they serve in a series of meetings with Cabinet members, law enforcement officials, young activists and others Monday.
The meetings follow a week of sometimes violent protests that swept the nation following the decision by a grand jury last Monday not to indict a white police officer in the shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri.
The incident, and subsequent months of unrest in Ferguson, set off a national debate over the tactics and tools used by law enforcement to keep the peace, which critics said were at times too aggressive.
A White House official said the events there and elsewhere “have shined a spotlight on the importance of strong, collaborative relationships between local police and the communities they protect and serve.”
“As the country has witnessed, disintegration of trust between law enforcement agencies and the people they protect and serve can destabilize communities, undermine the legitimacy of the criminal justice system, undermine public safety, create resentment in local communities, and make the job of delivering police services less safe and more difficult,” the official said.
Obama is examining that development in meeting with three groups of stakeholders at the White House on Monday afternoon.
He first sat down with members of his Cabinet — Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson attended, as well as deputy Defense Secretary Robert O. Work and Michael Botticelli, the acting director of the White House Office of National Drug Policy. They discussed a review Obama ordered in August of federal funding and programs that provide equipment to state and local law enforcement agencies, according to the White House.
Obama is also hosting a group of young civil rights leaders in the Oval Office to discuss, per the White House, “the broader challenges we still face as a nation, including the mistrust between law enforcement and communities of color.”
And later that day, he’ll meet with elected officials, law enforcement officials and community, civil rights and faith leaders from around the nation to discuss ways to “build trust” between communities and law enforcement.
Holder is also set to address the events in Ferguson during a Monday night forum at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., a church where Martin Luther King Jr. once preached. Civic leaders, students, community leaders and others have been invited to the forum, and Holder plans to give remarks afterward.
The day’s events come as protests continue into their second week. On Monday, protesters snarled traffic throughout Washington, D.C. by blocking main roadways across the city, according to the D.C. Police Department.
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