Gregory Korte

USA TODAY

The federal government can play more of a role in helping to protect and train police officers, President Obama said Tuesday — but the initiative needs to come from local police departments.

Obama emphasized that not enough police departments have access to equipment like bullet-proof vests, and he said the federal government could play a role in helping to train officers how to de-escalate tense situations and deal with active shooters.

But he stressed, "this cannot just be a federal top-down initiative. This has to be a local initiative in the 18,000 law enforcement jurisdictions that are out there all across the country."

Obama's comments came after a meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey, who were huddling to discuss the shooting deaths of three police officers in Baton Rouge last weekend. That shooting followed the deaths of five Dallas officers under similar circumstances earlier this month, leaving the White House scrambling to try to find specific ways to improve police safety.

Among Baton Rouge victims, a new dad, an ex-Marine and a father of four

At the same time, Obama is also pressuring police departments to adopt policies to eliminate bias in policing and restore trust between officers and the communities they serve. That, Obama says, will be key to preventing the kind of police shootings of African-American men that preceded the violence against police officers this month.

"I strongly believe that there is no contradiction between us protecting our officers, honoring our officers, making sure that they have all the tools they need to do their job safely, and building trust between police officers and departments in the communities that they serve," Obama said. "In fact, those things are complementary and not contradictory."

But even as Obama spoke, Republicans at the Republican National Convention were criticizing his record of support for police. In his speech nominating Donald Trump for the presidency, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said, "Crime is rising, and the president, he blames the police."