US Justice Department Abandons Police Reform Agreements With Louisville and Minneapolis

The US Justice Department revokes consent agreements with Louisville and Minneapolis in spite of prior findings of systematic civil rights abuses.

A top official announced on Wednesday that the US Justice Department is ceasing to pursue court-approved settlements with Minneapolis and Louisville, despite previous conclusions that the police in both cities routinely violated the civil rights of Black citizens.

The assistant attorney general for the department’s Civil Rights Division, Harmeet Dhillon, declared that the government would revoke earlier conclusions of constitutional violations and request the dismissal of ongoing legal action against the two communities.

According to Dhillon’s statement, “overbroad police consent decrees transfer local control of policing from communities where it belongs to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, often with an anti-police agenda.”

Additionally, the agency will end investigations and revoke previous findings of wrongdoing against the Louisiana State Police, the Phoenix, Arizona, Memphis, Tennessee, Trenton, New Jersey, Mount Vernon, New York, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma police agencies.

Only a few days remain till May 25, 2020, the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s passing. During an arrest, Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, kneeled on Floyd’s neck, causing Floyd to die. The murder and the shooting death of Breonna Taylor by Louisville police during a no-knock warrant search sparked protests against racially motivated policing around the world.

Minneapolis and Louisville were the two cities most frequently investigated by the Department of Justice for systematic police abuses during the Biden administration. They were the only cities that had consent decrees approved by the court to change their police forces in principle. Additionally, Minneapolis reached a separate police reform deal with the state of Minnesota.

After Rodney King was beaten by Los Angeles police officers in 1994, Congress authorized the Justice Department to look into police departments for constitutional violations such racial profiling or excessive force.

During the administration of President Joe Biden, the Civil Rights Division conducted 12 such “pattern or practice” investigations into police departments, including those in Trenton, Memphis, Phoenix, New York City, and Lexington, Mississippi.