Watch CBS News

LAPD Chief Beck, Former Chief Bratton Talk Police-Community Relations With Clinton

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com/AP) — The current and former chiefs of the Los Angeles Police Department met with Hillary Clinton Thursday to discuss efforts to repair rifts between police officers and the communities they serve and guard against more discord.

The Democratic presidential nominee was meeting with law enforcement leaders in New York City, joining with chiefs of police in the days after Trump, her Republican opponent, accused her of being "against the police" following a police shooting in Milwaukee.

Clinton was joined at the round-table discussion by retiring New York City police commissioner and former LAPD chief Bill Bratton, who said earlier this month in an interview with CBS News that Trump's "shoot from the hip" style and "lack of depth" on police issues scared him.

The meeting also included Los Angeles Police Chief Charles Beck; Bratton's successor, New York City Police Chief James O'Neill; former police chief Charles Ramsey of Philadelphia and law enforcement leaders from Seattle; Tucson, Arizona; Camden County, New Jersey; and Dallas County, Texas.

Clinton made no mention of her opponent at the start of her meeting with eight law enforcement leaders but her comments appeared aimed at pushing back against Trump's claims that he was the best candidate to restore law and order following a rash of deadly police shootings.

"We have to be clear-eyed about the challenges we face. We can't ignore them and certainly we must not inflame them," Clinton said at New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "We need to work together to bridge our divides, not stoke even more divisiveness."

Clinton has made criminal justice reform a central piece of her candidacy and has been frequently joined by a group of black women who lost a child to gun violence or amid allegations of police brutality. She has urged "white Americans" to put themselves in the shoes of "black Americans" to understand the harms of profiling and similar said everyday Americans should understand the daily challenges faced by members of law enforcement and their families.

She said at the start of the meeting that the deadly shootings in Dallas, Baton Rouge and Milwaukee show the need for the nation "to repair the bonds of trust and respect between our police officers and our communities."

Last month, Beck along Mayor Eric Garcetti met with rappers Snoop Dogg and The Game following an ambush in Dallas in which five officers were killed, and the deadly officer-involved shootings of two unarmed black men in Minnesota and Louisiana.

Aides said Clinton's meeting had been planned for several weeks and was building upon her outreach to law enforcement during the campaign and following up on law enforcement officials who spoke at the party's summer convention, including Ramsey.

(©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.