Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf Wednesday said President Donald Trump "really listened" to concerns about law enforcement reform and devised an executive order that will bring change.
"It's certainly a very good first step forward," Wolf said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends," explaining that it addresses transparency and accountability while laying out fundamental principles to ensure the use of best practices.
However, Wolf said that it's "not true" that there is systemic racism in law enforcement.
"The vast majority of law enforcement out there do not hold any racist racist beliefs and are tired of being told they're racist," said Wolf. "We have African American, Asian, and Hispanic (officers). Does that say calling them systemic racists as well? This criticism and line of argument again fall flat. We know the vast majority of law enforcement officers that put on the badge, that put on the uniform every day are decent, law-abiding individuals that do not abuse their power."
The "very small minority" who do abuse their power, however, "need to be held accountable," said Wolf. "I have talked about that. The president has talked about that. And the attorney general has talked about that time and again."
Meanwhile, part of the executive order will work at restoring the public's trust in law enforcement, including with community policing, said Wolf.
"The executive order some of those initiatives that the president and administration have put into place is a good first step forward but, again, it comes back to individual communities," said Wolf. "the vast majority of law enforcement wants to do the right thing...we take a couple of isolated incidents and say that all law enforcement are systematic racists and bad people. That's simply not true. Make sure we hold whose that abuse their power accountability annual make sure we don't paint the wide variety of law enforcement with that broad brush."