"We've got to figure out what is happening when routine traffic stops, when routine arrests, escalate into killings ... Clearly, there seem to be a terrible disconnect between many police departments and officers and the people they have sworn to protect,"
she said.
Federal policing guidelines are needed because "we have 18,000 police departments... [some of which need more training to] go after systemic racism, which is a reality, and to go after systemic bias," she said.
"We've got to start once again respecting and treating each other with the dignity that every person deserves," she said.
To win in November, Clinton need a high turnout of African-American voters.
Neither Blitzer nor Clinton suggested that African-American communities have a role in reducing police-encounter deaths, which usually occur in tense engagements between a few cops and a few suspects with extensive criminal histories.
In general, young African-American men are far more likely to commit crimes than young white men, young Asian men or young Latino men. A November 2011
report by the Justice Department showed that young African-American men are just 1 percent of the population, yet are responsible for a disproportionate percentage of murders in the nation.
