The Biden White House is struggling to reshape an executive order on police accountability three months after a leaked draft drew sharp opposition from law enforcement groups, putting the initiative at risk at a time when violent crime is rising and civil rights groups have expressed frustration over the pace of reform.

Police organizations said they remain in talks with Biden’s domestic policy adviser, Susan Rice, and other senior aides. But nearly two years after the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others sparked nationwide protests and demands for change, the White House has offered no timeline for the release of the order or details of what it might include.

The parties have reached general agreement on some key issues, including creating national standards for the accreditation of police departments and a decertification registry of officers who commit violations, said Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police. Those changes are aimed at boosting accountability by ensuring basic policing standards across the country and limiting the ability of bad officers to get jobs elsewhere.

But the most contentious questions remain unresolved — such as whether the White House would call for stricter use-of-force standards or changes to qualified legal immunity for officers, which protects them being sued as individuals over alleged misconduct. Law enforcement officials also have opposed efforts to make federal grant funding for local police departments contingent on those departments adopting specified reforms, Pasco said.

The White House and police groups acknowledged that the president cannot change qualified immunity through executive power. But calling publicly for changes could help mobilize public support and pressure on lawmakers.

The relatively slow-moving process — more than six months after President Biden promised to pursue executive action — comes as the White House seeks to signal support for police amid a two-year surge in gun violence and homicides, but also to reassure critics of policing that Biden wants to improve training and root out misconduct.

Facing sharp criticism from Republicans on public safety, Biden proposed $30 billion in new law enforcement funding in his fiscal 2023 budget request, following a State of the Union address in which he pointedly reaffirmed his rejection of the “defund the police” movement. Policing groups have noticed the recent attentiveness from Biden, who long boasted close ties to law enforcement.

“This felt more like the Joe Biden we’ve known for 25 years,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum.

At the same time, Biden’s stance has alarmed civil rights leaders, who fear that the administration’s urgency around police reform is fading as the midterm elections approach this fall. Since the collapse in Congress last year of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act — which would have ended qualified immunity, made it easier to prosecute officers for misconduct and limited police use of force — advocates have looked to the White House and the Justice Department to take bold action.

Maurice Mitchell, national director of the left-leaning Working Families Party, said advocates are “beginning to see the recalibration politically.”

“We think it would be bad practice and bad policy if their perceived political vulnerabilities turn into less of an appetite to seriously approach these systemic issues in our criminal justice system,” he said.

The White House believes public concerns about crime have complicated the political debate, according to law enforcement officials who have spoken with Biden aides. In June 2020 — at the height of the protests after Floyd’s death in police custody — about a quarter of Americans said they wanted less money spent on policing, compared with about 31 percent who called for more spending, according to the Pew Research Center. By last fall, those wanting reduced funding dropped to 15 percent, with 47 percent calling for more, Pew found.

“He’s trying to do this in the midst of a 25-year-high spike in the crime rate,” Pasco said of Biden’s efforts at police reform. “And you’re not going to ‘civil rights’ your way out of it.”