The United States Department of Justice said Wednesday that it is moving to eliminate police reform agreements, known as consent decrees, that the Department of the Biden era arrived in the cities of Louisville, Kentucky and Minneapolis. The mandatory agreements were born from the probes launched after the police murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd of 2020.
The agreements with Minneapolis and Louisville, who intended to address the accusations of systemic unconstitutional surveillance and civil rights violations, remained in a federal court and faced several delays, and the Department of Justice requested several extensions to present documents requested by federal judges in each case.
Amid the delays, the Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara told ABC News in an February interview that although the Trump administration could intervene in the process, since the agreements have already been submitted in a federal court, whether they are approved it does not depend on the White House, but “finally in the hands of the federal judge.”
Minneapolis Police Car in Minneapolis, MN.
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Officials in Minneapolis and Louisville told ABC News in February that cities are still committed to the reforms described in the agreements and plan to implement changes with or without the support of the Trump administration.
The consent each decree a road map for the police reform to rectify the violations of the civil rights that the DOJ discovered and, if approved by a federal judge, the Court will designate an independent monitor to supervise the implementation of the reforms and actions described in the agreement.
Kevin Trager, spokesman for the mayor of Louisville, Craig Greenberg, told ABC News in February that the city and the police are committed to the reforms agreed in the decree of consent, “regardless of what happens in the Federal Court.”
“The Louisville and LMPD metropolitan government will advance and honor our commitment to significant improvements and reforms,” said Trager.
The mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, told ABC News in February that the city “had not heard directly” of the Trump administration about the decree of consent, but the city plans to advance with the terms of the agreement “with or without support from the White House.”
“It is unfortunate that the Trump administration is not interested in cooperating with us to improve surveillance and support our community, but do not be wrong: we have the tools, resolution and support of the community to fulfill our promise to the people of Minneapolis. Our work will not stop,” Frey said.
After the new announcement of the DOJ on Wednesday, ABC News communicated with officials in Minneapolis and Louisville for additional comments.
A car of the Louisville Metro Police Department, April 10, 2023.
Tesa Duvall/Lexington Herald-Leader through Getty Images
The Civil Rights Division of the DOJ also plans to close its investigations in the police departments in Phoenix; Trenton, New Jersey; Memphis, Tennessee; Mount Vernon, New York; Oklahoma City; and the Louisiana State Police, according to the announcement.
In addition, the department said that “the findings published during the Biden administration against the departments that allegedly involved in widespread misconduct against citizens will be” retracted.
“The consent of the Police by Borda Decrees The local control of the surveillance of the communities where it belongs, delivering that power to unleashed and inexplicable bureaucrats, often with an antipolicin agenda,” said the attached attorney general Harmeet Dhillon in a statement announcing the movements. “Today, we are finishing the failed experiment of the Biden Civil Rights Division of Public Leaders and Police Departments with unjustified consent decrees.”
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