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United States Attorney General Eric Holder holds a news conference announcing updates in the Justice Department's investigation in the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in Washington September 4 2014. REUTERS/Gary Cameron

Following the weeks of unrest in Ferguson, Missouri that followed the shooting death of a black teenager by a white police officer, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Wednesday that he is launching a program to combat distrust and hostility between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

"As we saw all too clearly last month as the eyes of the nation turned toward Ferguson, Missouri, whenever discord, mistrust and rolling tensions are allowed to fester just under the surface, interactions between law enforcement and local residents are more likely to escalate into confrontation, unrest and even violence," Holder said.

As a law enforcement leader, he said he believes he has an "essential obligation" to "ensure fairness, eliminate bias, and build community engagement."

The program, called the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice, will train law enforcement and communities on bias reduction and procedural fairness, according to the Justice Department, and will begin at five pilot sites around the country. It is being funded through a $4.75 million grant.

The program will also establish a clearinghouse for information, research and technical assistance on the subject available to law enforcement, community leaders and people involved with the criminal justice system.

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Attorney General Eric Holder talks with residents of Ferguson, Missouri, after the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown sparked clash...

The grant was awarded to a group of national law enforcement experts from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Yale Law School, the Center for Policing equity at the University of California Los Angeles and the Urban Institute. A board of advisers will be comprised of national leaders from law enforcement, academia, faith-based groups, community stakeholders and civil rights advocates.

"What I saw in Ferguson confirmed for me that the need for such an effort was pretty clear," Holder told the Associated Press Tuesday when he announced the initiative.

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After Ferguson, Eric Holder looks to better police-community relations

En Banc Court 09-71491 Roberto Maldonado v. Eric Holder, Jr.
A citizen of Mexico petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals #39; denial of his application for deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture.

By: 9thcirc

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En Banc Court 09-71491 Roberto Maldonado v. Eric Holder, Jr. - Video

FBI Targets Minority Communities in Mortgage Fraud Investigations
Former bank regulator Bill Black says Attorney General Eric Holder must stop targeting minorities and instead focus on the mortgage fraud of banksters.

By: TheRealNews

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FBI Targets Minority Communities in Mortgage Fraud Investigations - Video

Attorney General Eric Holder wants to encourage whistleblowers to come forward about financial fraud.

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney)

In a speech slated for delivery Wednesday in New York, Holder will ask Congress to change a federal law to increase the financial reward paid to anyone who provides evidence of financial fraud to the government.

He'll also announce plans to increase the number of FBI agents with forensic accounting experience who are focused on investigating white collar crime, according to a Justice Department official.

In his five-plus years leading the Justice Department, Holder has faced criticism about how the department has handled corporate crime investigations and its failure to bring charges against top bankers tied to the financial crisis. The department struggled to find proof of criminal wrongdoing, but in recent years has dusted off a civil law that it is using to extract multi-billion dollar settlements from some of the nation's biggest banks for their shoddy mortgage securities sales practices.

Related: FBI launches a face recognition system

It's that law, known as the Financial Institutions Recovery and Reform Act, that Holder hopes to change to award bigger sums to whistleblowers in exchange for helping prosecutors bring white collar crime cases. The law currently caps whistleblower awards at $1.6 million, but Holder believes that's not enough to make a Wall Street banker risk his lucrative career to come forward.

The attorney general wants to bring the law in line with another whistleblower law, the False Claims Act, which encourages whistleblowers to report fraud against government programs. In those cases, whistleblowers can win awards worth up to 30% of the prosecutor's final settlement, sometimes totaling millions of dollars.

Holder hopes these steps will help the Justice Department pursue cases against bankers and executives, and not just against the corporations.

Related: UBS whistleblower nets $104 million reward

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Holder: Pay Wall Street whistleblowers more

To prosecute wall street crimes.

He wants more money to reward whistleblowers and more agents with expertise.

Phil, what is behind what the attorney general is saying and what we are going to hear from him this afternoon?

Frustration.

I have got excerpts of the speech the attorney general will give today at nyu law school.

What i have been hearing behind the scenes from justice department officials for the last two or three years, all the roadblocks they have run into as they have tried to figure out a way to prosecute individuals coming out of the financial crisis.

It's a feeling that executives are to insulated, that lawyers are making sure that everything their top level people are doing at the bank will never get into the hands of law enforcement officials.

What the attorney general will lay out today is the frustration and the roadblocks that have run into over the last five years, roadblocks that have drawn a ton of criticism from capitol hill, pretty much everywhere for not extracting the pound of flesh coming out of the financial crisis.

But he will ask for is for lawmakers to go in and change what is now capped.

It is currently capped at one point $6 million.

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Eric Holder Seeks Law for More Money for Whistleblowers