President Barack Obama is set to announce the decision of the US federal government to stop supplying military-style equipments to local police departments across the country in a bid to improve relations between minority groups and law enforcement officials.

According to The New York Times, administration officials have also revealed that the police will be restricted from using several other types of equipments.

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The announcement by President Obama coincides with the release of a report by the Task Force on 21^st Century Policing, which advocates for limitations to be introduced in the provision of federal funds for local police departments to acquire high-caliber, military-style items. Some of the items in question include grenade launchers, pyrotechnics, armed aircraft, armored vehicles, battering rams, camouflage uniforms and riot gear.

While the police will still be provided with some military-style equipments, they will reportedly have to meet certain requirements and will be under strict supervision. According to Bustle, police departments will be required to have the approval of a civilian-led group before they are granted military-style equipments by the federal government.

The US police have been subjected to a barrage of criticisms over a series of murders involving unarmed African-American men. Since April, protests have been ongoing in Baltimore over the death of a 25-year-old man, who sustained fatal spinal injuries while he was being arrested by the police for possessing an illegal switchblade.

While many critics have blamed the "militarization" of the police for the escalation of the recent riots, experts say the government may have been slow to limit the provision of military-style items to local police departments because there is a consensus that these equipments have improved policing. The decision to arm local police departments with military-style equipments was a popular counter-terrorism strategy that followed the 9/11 attack.

President Obama is expected to make this announcement during a trip to Camden, NJ. He will reportedly use Camden as an example of the benefits of a policing system that acknowledges community ties. The city, which has a high rate of poverty and violence, has been held as the poster-child for better relations between the police and the local community since the authorities decided to switch to a county-run law enforcement system.

President Obama is expected to also encourage the use of body cameras by the police and offer up to $163 million in grants in a bid to encourage local police departments to adopt his recommendations.

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