Obama: We've seen police-related deaths 'too often now'

The Baltimore riots show that police departments must hold officers accountable for wrongdoing, President Obama said Wednesday.

Obama told Steve Harvey on his morning show that though he supports the Baltimore police officers injured by rioters — adding that there is no excuse for that kind of violence — police departments need to work on accountability and transparency in order to build more trust in minority communities.

"It's in their interest to root out folks who aren't doing the right thing, to hold accountable people when they do something wrong, instead of just the closing-ranks approach that all too often we see that ends up just feeding greater frustration and ultimately, I think, putting more police officers in danger," Obama said. The interview was taped Tuesday and broadcast on radio stations nationwide Wednesday morning.

Retraining police and providing them with body cameras isn't going to be the end-all-be-all solution, he said. Issues like poor education, drugs, absent fathers and limited job opportunities need to be addressed.

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