Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall issued an order late Thursday (June 4) implementing a new policy that compels officers “to either stop, or attempt to stop, another employee when force is being inappropriately applied or is no longer required,” according to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth.

The new mandate comes as police departments around the country are being encouraged to take a new look at the methods they employ to apprehend arrest suspects in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd on May 25.

"Millions watched a Minneapolis police officer suffocate Mr. George Floyd to death by applying pressure with his knee on the victim’s neck for nearly 9 minutes. His fellow co-workers either assisted or stood by and watched Mr. Floyd take his last breath. Had the officer’s partners intervened, the outcome might have been different. The revision was developed to create a culture where what happened to Mr. Floyd does not happen again," the department said in a news release.
On Wednesday (June 3), in a virtual town hall, former president Barack Obama called for mayors to revisit the report of the Department of Justice Task Force on 21st Century Policing, released in 2015. 

"A lot of mayors and local elected officials, read and supported the Task Force report but then there wasn't enough follow-through," he said. "Today, I'm urging every mayor in this country to review your use-of-force policies with members of your community, and commit to reforms.

"We have more information and more data as to what works and there are organizations like Campaign Zero, Color of Change and others that are out there, highlighting what the data shows that works and what doesn't in terms of reducing incidents of police misconduct and violence,” Obama continued. Let's go ahead and start implementing those."

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms was among the first to respond by establishing a commission to examine police use-of-force policies, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Meanwhile, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced the launch of the civil rights investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department in the wake of Floyd's killing, NBC News reports. The probe will be led by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.

"The Minnesota of Department of Human Rights is filing a commissioner's charge of discrimination and launch a civil right investigation against the Minneapolis Police Department," Walz said to reporters on Tuesday (June 2).

Two of the officers charged in Floyd’s death, Thomas Lane, 37, and J. Alexander Kueng, 26, are placing blame on their training officer, Derek Chauvin, 44, saying they tried to deescalate the situation. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the attorneys for the three officers made their first court appearance on June 4. 

BET has been covering every angle of George Floyd’s death in police custody, other social justice cases and the subsequent aftermath and protests. For our continuing coverage, click here.