Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said that federal investigators should be involved in all cases involving deaths in police custody.

“This is a responsibility for the U.S. Justice Department to get involved. Whenever someone is killed in police custody, this should automatically trigger a [DOJ] investigation,” Sanders said during the Democratic presidential debate Sunday night.

RELATED: Sanders criticizes Bill Clinton again

Sanders is the first of Democratic hopeful to call for an automatic federal investigation into deaths in police custody. His remarks comes as public trust in police-involved shootings in particular has eroded and leaders have called for independent agencies to carry out investigations as an unbiased approach to justice.