US President Barack Obama requests $263 million for federal response to Ferguson, Mo.

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama asked Congress on Monday for $263 million for the federal response to the civil rights upheaval in Ferguson, Missouri, and is setting up a task force to study how to improve modern-day policing.

The $263 million would pay for body cameras for police officers to use and expand training for law enforcement in an attempt to build trust in communities such as Ferguson, where a grand jury decided not to indict a white police officer in the shooting death last summer of an unarmed black teenager.

Obama brought in a series of civil rights leaders and various elected officials and community leaders to discuss how to respond to the challenge presented by Ferguson.

Obama will create a task force on 21st century policing to be chaired by Philadelphia police commissioner Charles Ramsey and Laurie Robinson, a George Mason University professor who is a former assistant attorney general.

Obama brought in a series of civil rights leaders and various elected officials and community leaders to discuss how to respond to the challenge presented by Ferguson.