President Joe Biden said that police in the US should be retrained to use deadly force less frequently in a speech about racial justice.

Biden addressed a civil rights group in Washington, DC, on Monday, where he criticized Republicans for not passing a Democratic policing reform bill.

"We have to retrain cops as to why shouldn't you always shoot with deadly force. The fact is, if you need to use your weapon, you don't have to do that," Biden said.

Biden was speaking at a National Action Network event to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Biden also spoke about the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a Democratic police reform bill drafted after the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died when a police officer knelt on his neck for what prosecuters said was more than nine minutes in May 2020.

Floyd's death sparked major protests about police brutality.

The bill, which did not get voted through by Senate Republicans after negotations collapsed in 2021, was designed to reform police training and policies, prohibit the use of chokeholds, and "hold law enforcement accountable for misconduct in court."

It also included steps to address racial profiling by police.

Biden later signed an executive order for police reform at a federal level. He described that order on Monday as the "only thing I could do."

Biden, who was not in office when Floyd died, has criticized law enforcement's harsh response to protesters after Floyd's death.

He later praised the legal conviction of the police officer who killed Floyd, and said that to "deliver real change, we must have accountability when law enforcement officers violate their oaths, and we need to build lasting trust between the vast majority of the men and women who wear the badge honorably and the communities they are sworn to serve and protect."

Many cities have passed policing reform bills since Floyd's death, but over the past two years some have reverted back to their original police funding models, Insider's DeArbea Walker reported last year.