The administration of President Donald Trump has begun rolling back federal efforts to reform local police departments, canceling two high-profile settlement agreements that would have subjected police forces in Louisville, Kentucky, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, to federal oversight, as per Al Jazeera.
The Justice Department announced Wednesday that it would terminate proposed consent decrees for both cities, halting a key civil rights initiative that gained momentum after the 2020 deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor — two unarmed Black Americans whose killings at the hands of police sparked nationwide protests and demands for accountability.
In addition to scrapping the proposed agreements, the department said it would withdraw findings from six other “pattern-or-practice” investigations that had concluded various police departments engaged in systemic discrimination and excessive force.
The decision comes just days before the fifth anniversary of Floyd’s death, which occurred on May 25, 2020, after then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for over nine minutes. Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT, was killed two months earlier when Louisville police executed a late-night no-knock warrant on her apartment.
Civil rights advocates condemned the DOJ’s move, warning that it sends a dangerous message to law enforcement agencies.
The Trump administration’s shift stands in stark contrast to the approach taken under President Joe Biden, whose Justice Department launched a dozen civil rights investigations into local departments after taking office in 2021. These inquiries sought to determine whether misconduct was systemic, and often led to court-enforced agreements known as consent decrees.
Minneapolis and Louisville were among the cities where investigators found evidence of discriminatory policing and excessive use of force.
For example, the Minneapolis report stated that officers “used dangerous techniques and weapons against people who committed at most a petty offense, and sometimes no offense at all.”
Despite the Trump administration’s withdrawal from oversight, local officials in both Louisville and Minneapolis said they remain committed to reform.
In Louisville, Interim Police Chief Paul Humphrey said his department will continue to pursue improvements with or without federal involvement.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey echoed that sentiment, pledging to fully implement the terms of the city’s previously negotiated consent decree.
“We will comply with every sentence of every paragraph of the 169-page consent decree that we signed this year,” Frey told reporters. “This city is moving forward.”
The Justice Department under Trump is also considering revisiting existing consent decrees, though altering those agreements would require court approval.
Other departments whose reform findings are now being withdrawn include those in Phoenix, Arizona; Memphis, Tennessee; Trenton, New Jersey; Mount Vernon, New York; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and the Louisiana State Police.
While some critics argue that federal consent decrees place undue burdens on local police departments, reform advocates say the oversight mechanisms are crucial for meaningful change and public trust.
