On Monday, Obama met with his cabinet to discuss programs that provide heavy weapons to local police forces. The US president also met with civil rights leaders, elected local officials, community leaders and police about how to better build trust between communities and law enforcement agencies. The president ordered his staff to develop recommendations within 120 days on how to provide greater oversight such as requiring civilian approval of military-style acquisitions by local police departments.

"There is a big difference between our military and our local law enforcement and we don't want those lines blurred," Obama had said in August, when police launched a weaponized response to protests.

A review of programs that allow local police to acquire military equipment from the federal government has found that most of the purchases do not involve weapons, but rather office equipment or protective gear. Still, the report found that local law enforcement agencies had acquired about 460,000 pieces of controlled property, including 92,442 small arms, 44,275 night-vision devices, 5,235 Humvees, 617 mine-resistant vehicles and 616 aircraft.

Holding police accountable

The president also decided to create a task force on 21st-century law enforcement led by Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and Laurie Robinson, a professor of criminology, law and society at George Mason University in Virginia. Obama asked Congress for $263 million (210.6 million euros) over three years for policing initiatives, including $75 million to purchase 50,000 body-worn cameras.

The grand jury's decision not to prosecute Darren Wilson, who hit Michael Brown with at least six bullets, centered on conflicting witness accounts about whether the unarmed black teenager had cooperated with or threatened the white police officer. No video exists of the shooting.

The funds would also pay for expanded training for police officers as such incidents have proved common in the United States, where black and Latino men find themselves the frequent, and disproportionate, targets of law enforcement. US policing tactics have even earned a rebuke from the United Nations. Meanwhile, in Ferguson and across the United States, the protests continue.

mkg/mg (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)