The Trump administration is dismissing investigations into several major US police departments, as well as consent decrees in Louisville and Minneapolis reached following the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor and police killing of George Floyd. The move, announced by the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, reflects the administration’s opposition to agreements that require reforms of police departments where the DOJ found a pattern of misconduct. A consent decree is a federal agreement that is approved by a judge and is used as a monitoring system for police departments when an investigation finds that reform is needed. The Civil Rights Division is closing investigations into local police departments in Phoenix, Arizona, Trenton, New Jersey, Memphis, Tennessee, and Mount Vernon, New York. “Overbroad police consent decrees divest local control of policing from communities where it belongs, turning that power over to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, often with an anti-police agenda,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a statement. This story is breaking and will be updated.
Justice Department ends police reform agreements and halts investigations into major departments
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The Trump administration is dismissing investigations into several major US police departments, as well as consent decrees in Louisville and Minneapolis reached following the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor and police killing of George Floyd. The move, announced by the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, reflects the administration’s opposition to agreements that require reforms of police departments where the DOJ found a pattern of misconduct. A consent decree is a federal agreement that is approved by a judge and is used as a monitoring system for police departments when an investigation finds that reform is needed. The Civil Rights Division is closing investigations into local police departments in Phoenix, Arizona, Trenton, New Jersey, Memphis, Tennessee, and Mount Vernon, New York. “Overbroad police consent decrees divest local control of policing from communities where it belongs, turning that power over to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, often with an anti-police agenda,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a statement. This story is breaking and will be updated.
