apologize to matt damon. sarah paulson and jeff ross will be with us tomorrow. "nightline" is next. goodnight. this is "nightline." tonight, can the presidential pen change policing in america? what dismantling really looks like on the streets. we're with officers under unprecedented pressure, taking aim with a targeted solution. >> put your hands up! >> before they ever have to draw a gun. plus, plaintiff's pride. the supreme court ruling history-making plaintiff and an attorney living through the legal struggles. a fight they say far from over. >> "nightline" starts right now. with juju chang. good evening, thanks for joining us. the self-proclaimed law and order president defending police officers while putting pen to

paper for policing reform. but critics say it's not enough. tonight we take you to maryland, where officers are already learning how to conquer stressful situations before they escalate out of control. here's my "nightline" co-anchor, byron pitts. >> reporter: weeks of protests across the nation. fueled by the killing of black people at the hands of ahmaud arbery, brionna taylor, george floyd and rayshard brooks killed in atlanta just days ago. >> the trust that we have with the police force is broken. and the only way to heal some of these wounds is through a conviction and a drastic change with the police department. >> reporter: the country grappling with race, policing and an overwhelming demand for police reform. tonight the president's plan. >> we take historic action to

deliver a future of safety and security for americans of every race, religion, color and creed. >> reporter: inside, how one police force disbanded and rebuilt. >> wasn't that the people of this community didn't want the police. they wanted us to behave differently. r . >> reporter: and a look at a program helping police train under pressure. today the president met at least for an hour for families of black blacked americans whose loved ones were killed by police. >> all americans mourn by your side. >> reporter: among the mothers, the mother of arbery. >> i think the president was very receiving. he was very compassionate. he did assure each family member that we would and should expect change. >> reporter: in the rose garden, surrounded by nine law enforcement officers, only one

of them black the president signed an executive order to encourage change in police departments, including a mechanism to share abuse complaints against officers and new guidelines on chokeholds. >> chokeholds will be banned, except if an officer's leave is at risk. >> chokeholds are deadly force. the supreme court has already said the deadly force should not be used unless an officer is actually in fear of serious bodily harm or death. the problem with the use of the chokehold is the claims that are typically made by police officers that they felt exactly policing. and in his remarks, the president sought to down play the number of problem officers. >> i use the word tiny. it's a very small percentage, but you have them. >> unless we get some real serious teeth in these reforms, they're basically just holding

steady with pretty much where we are now. >> there's crisis in american policing, and something needs to be done about that. >> reporter: scott thompson knows how much work is needed to make changes. he served as police chief of camden, new jersey from 2008 to 2019. >> the overwhelming majority of the men and women who choose policing as a profession do so for al truistic reasons. i don't fault the police officers as much as i do the systems in which they operate. >> reporter: camden, once labeled the most dangerous city in america. grappled with high crime and poverty for generations. the majority of black and brown. >> it wasn't until w took a different approach to things until we started to change the trajectory of the city. >> reporter: in 2012 with a strapped budget and spiking murder rates, the state decided to disband the police department. the next year, the county rebuilt a new police department

and re-imagined public safety. thompson was there for all of it. >> there would be three bedrock principles of which we would construct this organization. the first was that there would be an identity of guardianship over warriors. the second was that we would engage in extraordinary levels of, of community policing. and the third was that deescalation was not going to be a training for us. it was going to be a culture. >> drop the knife! >> reporter: in this video, you can see the deescalation training at work in the real world. camden police officers encounter a knife-wielding man. for multiple blox, they walk along with the man until he drops the knife and he's arrested. it comes not just from the police but from the community's input as well. >> we've reduced aggressive reports by 95%. >> reporter: he still sigees mo

changes that could be made. >> i would like to see higher levels of diversity. >> reporter: his of of of of teach deescalation. >> ultimate objective is that everybody goes home at the end of the shift, not just one party. >> reporter: in 2019, "nightline" headed here, the maryland eastern shore to see a program that helps law enforcement officers better control stress in tense situations. it's called close quarters defense. once mostly reserved for u.s. special operations in federal agencies. >> they have no idea what they're going into, which is valuable, because we want them to do exactly what they would do on the street. >> reporter: dwayne deeter is the site's guru and exnert tactical training. in this day, a group of

sheriff's officers and deputies will be his trainees. >> come with me. >> reporter: his program is all about subjects cops rarely share with the public or their families. stress. and fear. >> stress not controlled can make a person be aggressive to someone that's not necessary to be aggressive to. >> reporter: jackie dalton, 36, a u.s. coast guard veteran, now a rookie cop and headed to grace, maryland, fresh out of the academy. >> i adore my co-workers and my chief. i don't want to let them down. >> reporter: one of the elements, this cloth and rope called the hood. each time the hood comes up, the trainee encounters a new unknown scenario. inches away could be a gunman. or pedestrian asking directions. >> so the hood teaches students to do what? >> to be able to react quickly and be aggressive, assertive,as,

passive or compassionate. >> reporter: dalton suits up. >> there's noise to help build the stressors. >> reporter: so in this you want stress. >> yes, we need it. >> reporter: vstress is their friend. >> it will become their friend. >> reporter: deeter observes her. >> she is verbalizing. >> reporter: given a baseline on how she performs under stress before his training. >> bget back, get back, get bac. [ bleep ]! >> she's getting her gun, which is very common. her energy was high enough that she eventually shot the person. >> reporter: even though the person was moving away from her. >> was not a threat. >> though he attacked her initially, he moved back. he's no longer an active threat.

>> you can relax, please just describe why you shot that person and used lethal threat? >> i used lethal threat because i felt fear for my life, and they could have threatened either the person off to my left or myself or any other citizens if i let them get away. >> did you see that he had any weapon at all, the person to your right. >> he had a gun. >> and did he shoot at you from your position or what did you she in. >> he was aiming it at me, he didn't shoot. >> what she thought was not reality and not even close. >> she actually saw a gun. >> reporter: many of us were raised to believe that the truth is always the truth. but what we saw today under stress, the truth can look different. >> the perceived truth. that's right. it's because they're not used to this level of stress. so their truth is very different sometimes than what truthfully happened. and they will say what they believe, right off the bat, because that's what they saw.

>> reporte >> reporter: deeter says dalton isn't the only one perceiving things differently under stress. sharing these videos with us of others on day one. can you train that out of a person? >> absolutely. we do it every single time. >> reporter: dalton is exhausted. drained, distraught. yet she shot an unarmed >> all right, you did great, you did great. have you ever felt that before? no. and a little bit of training, this will be a comfortable thing for you. you'll feel it. you'll feel you have the energy to respond to and react to it. have a seat, relax. >> all right, thanks. >> reporter: what do you think? >> it's stressful. it's emotionally draining. >> reporter: my sense from him is you did a hell of a job.

>> appreciate that. but sometimes it's not enough. >> reporter: you're shaking. >> it's an important job. and a lot of pride in me doing what i do. >> get down on one knee! >> reporter: deeter's program can take weeks. but even after just one day of training. she did better. >> she did better. >> reporter: we witness a transformation in dalton. >> get down on your stomach! >> now the person was complying and when he went for the gun, she was able to pick that up. >> reporter: she aced it. controlling stress, deeter says, actually improves decision making. you're smiling this time. >> yeah, i'm smiling this time. it felt less stressful even though i was going through the same thing. i was able to focus a little better. >> reporter: what i saw from you this time was confidence.

>> right. >> reporter: building confidence for those split-second decisions between life and death. >> and stop, that's good. >> reporter: a vital step in america's long journey towards justice for all. >> great work. great having you. super job, super job. be safe out there, everybody. >> our thanks to byron. cominext, breaking down that landmark lgbtq supreme court decision with those who lived it. many dealers now offer optional pick-up & delivery and at-home maintenance, as well as online shopping with home delivery and special your local dealernts.you vt or prefer the comfort of home you can count on the very highest level of service. get 0% apr financing up to 36 months on most models, and 90-day first-payment deferral on any model. a breakthrough 10 years in the makingveclear,

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out of wynn and encore. but it couldn't take the wynn and encore out of us. and now... we are proud to welcome you back. now to that groundbreaking decision from the supreme court, giving lgbtq employees equal protection under the law. tonight those at the center of that landmark ruling sitting down with me to talk about the triumphant end to this chapter in history and the chapters still to come. from the iconic stone wall inn in new york where the fight for gay rights began to white house. a celebration of the supreme court's stunning ruling, to protect the rights of lgbtq

workers. a 6-3 decision, making it illegal under federal law to discriminate against an employee on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. as part of our pride month series, i spoke with leaders at the forefront of this historic moment. thank you all for being here. >> absolutely. >> reporter: including the one-surviving plaintiff who fought his case all the way to the highest court in the land. >> i was elated. and my heart is just full of joy. and also, gratitude. >> reporter: i read that you were on a work conference call when you got the news? >> that's correct. and i truly think my heart stopped for a moment. my partner and i, we looked at each other, and we were like, oh, my >> reporter: for gerald bostok of georgia it began when he was fired from his job after his

bosses learned he'd joined a gay softball league. >> it was devastating. i lost my source of income, my health insurance at a time i was still battling and recovering from prostate cancer. i ended up having to sell my home. but i tell you, i have no regrets. >> reporter: it's a decision the other two plaintiffs didn't survive to celebrate, like don zarta, a skydiving instructor. >> we wish he was here to see it, but we know he is looking down and is so happy with this ruling. >> reporter: raquel willis who helped organize a rally for black trans lives in brooklyn, it has a sense of exhilaration. >> i felt ex-ill rated and red eye redy to continue the fight. >> reporter: talk about black lives matter and the say her name campaign. often black trans women are left

out of the conversation. >> we can't really have a real conversation on pride without talking about the stone waull riots, which was a queer uprising against police brutality. so when we think about the ways in which white supremacy plagues all black people, it is especially plaguing black trans folks as well. >> reporter: the third plaintiff in the scotus ruling, amy stevens, her attorney who's trans himself helped fight her case. >> reporter: bring us into the courtroom for a moment if you could. what was it like being there. >> to be a trans person, sitting there, i do think there's a lot of power to that. i was looking kavanaugh right in the eye. and gorsuch was right in front of me. and i was channeling my very existence and the existence of those that came before to say we are here and we are not going away. >> reporter: amy died just this may before her monday uumental .

>> she was such a kind and humble person who found in the fight for justice a mission to break a path for the next generation. we have to acknowledge that two of the three individuals whose cases were part of this supreme court victory died before they were able to see the results of their hard-fought efforts and the reason that they died is directly tied to the discrimination that they face. these are really life and death questions and i wish amy and don had lived to see this victory. >> reporter: a bittersweet moment but one big step forward in a fight for equality that these trail blazers say is far from over. >> i think this is laying the ground work for what still needs to happen in this country.th wh we've had. and my message is there is hope.

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and finally tonight, a hero's welcome. nurse deb became a patient but beat covid-19 back in april with the help of her colleagues. today her victorious return, treating and telling coronavirus patients, i've been there. stay strong. and that's "nightline." thanks for staying up with us, goodnight, america. ♪ ba, da, ba, ba, da, ba, ♪ ba, da, ba, ba, da, ba, ♪ ♪ jimmy kimmel live this is ridiculous. >> jimmy: hi there. welcome to a new episode of hollywood lockdown. i'm your host, jim "jimmy" kimmel. hey, this is alarming. according to a new study from the cdc, most people are not using hand sanitizer correctly.

they say you're supposed to rub your hands with sanitizer for 30 seconds, which is even longer than when you wash your hands. it's 20 seconds. the study was published in the "journal of information that would have been nice to have three months ago." i didn't know you need to purell for 30 seconds. it definitely doesn't say that on the bottle! i looked at the bottle. it says, "rub hands together briskly until dry." why can't we get anything right? what else are we doing wrong? are we using ketchup the right way? maybe you're supposed to put it on your face? this is an interesting sign of the times. a small show of progress, perhaps. johnson and johnson announced via instagram their plan to help heal our nation's wounds. a line of racially inclusive band-aids. the johnsons wrote, "we hear you. we see you. we're listening to you. we stand in solidarity with our black colleagues, collaborators and community in the fight against racism, violence and