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This week, the Department of Justice announced that it would begin pulling back from police reform efforts in eight law enforcement agencies across the country, including Minneapolis, Phoenix, and Louisville, Kentucky. It’s a move that many expected, and one we foreshadowed in last week’s newsletter.
In all eight locations, the department announced it is retracting its prior findings of unconstitutional policing, including racial discrimination. Those findings all came under the Biden administration. In Minneapolis and Louisville, where the investigations led to preliminary plans for consent decrees — a binding agreement with specific reforms to be enforced by a judge — the Justice Department announced it is filing motions to have those agreements tossed out in court.
In its announcement, the department said its predecessors erred in producing their investigative findings in part by “wrongly equating statistical disparities with intentional discrimination,” and argued that consent decrees amount to an expensive micromanagement of local policing.
The federal reversal on reform measures marks an unceremonious retreat from one of the most visible tools used to hold police departments accountable for civil rights abuses. The announcement came just days before the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which animated one of the most intense public campaigns for police reform in U.S. history. The first Trump administration also sought to back out of or stall policing investigations and consent decrees, but this week’s efforts mark a much more aggressive about-face.
The overall efficacy of these federal interventions has long been debated, but a new analysis published by the Mapping Police Violence database this week suggests they may contribute to reduced use of force. The report found that nearly three-quarters of the 18 departments with reform agreements in the researchers’ data decreased their use of force; however, among all agencies nationwide, only half saw decreases. That doesn’t prove that the reforms solely caused the drop, but the contrast is notable, especially considering the analysis’ findings that use of force rose over the same five-year period for departments with no federal involvement.
Notably, several of the cities affected by the department’s withdrawal have said they still intend to implement key reforms recommended by the earlier investigations. Whether those efforts will carry the same weight without judicial oversight remains to be seen. Here’s a look at how leadership in each city is responding to the rollback, and what’s at stake.
Minneapolis: “We’re doing it anyway.”
City officials, including Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara, said they plan to implement the full slate of reforms proposed by the Justice Department, regardless of federal oversight. The city is one of two where a federal judge will need to sign off to officially bring the efforts to a close.
The federal investigation included findings that officers routinely used excessive force and discriminated against Black and Native residents.
Some in the city expressed dismay at the timing of the Trump administration’s announcement, coming a few days before the anniversary of Floyd’s murder. “For this administration to pick this particular week to take this particular action is unconscionable and outrageous,” Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality, told KSTP.
Minneapolis also remains bound by a separate state-level consent decree with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. “Our department and the state court consent decree isn’t going anywhere,” the department’s commissioner, Rebecca Lucero, said Wednesday.
Louisville: “We’re moving forward.”
Similarly to Minneapolis, the federal consent decree negotiated between the city of Louisville and the Biden administration was never finalized by a judge. Mayor Craig Greenberg wrote in an op-ed for the Courier-Journal that he had “every reason to believe” that the Trump administration’s motion to kill the effort would be granted.
The federal investigation, launched after Louisville police shot Breonna Taylor to death in March 2020, included findings that officers regularly executed search warrants in unlawful ways, including invalid warrants.
City officials have said they plan to implement the full slate of Justice Department-proposed reforms, regardless of federal oversight, including hiring an independent police monitor.
Not everyone is buying the city’s professed commitment to the reforms, reported WDRB. Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, accused the mayor of dragging his feet to avoid finalizing the consent decree. “It is up to the residents of this city to hold the police department and the Mayor accountable,” she said in a statement.
Memphis: “Doesn’t change our trajectory one iota.”
Memphis had not come to an agreement with the Justice Department over reforms, citing concerns over the cost and scope of federal oversight. Still, city leadership has pledged its commitment to improving the police in the absence of federal involvement.
The investigation, launched after the January 2023 killing of Tyre Nichols, included findings that officers conducted unlawful traffic stops and routinely used excessive force.
Bernice Donald, who leads a nine-member task force examining police practices in the city, expressed optimism this week about her group’s work. “What happened in D.C. doesn’t change our trajectory one iota,” she told FOX13 in Memphis. The group, which Mayor Paul Young commissioned after the federal investigation concluded in December, will make reform suggestions after its review. But the group will have no legal power to force change.
Phoenix: “Complete vindication.”
City leaders in Phoenix were also concerned about the cost and supposed benefits of a consent decree. “We will learn everything we can from DOJ, but these processes have been very costly and in many cases have not come out with great outcomes,” Mayor Kate Gallego told the local NPR affiliate KJZZ in August.
Local opinions have, at least in part, been shaped by the agreement currently in place for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, which has cost more than $350 million. Phoenix is the largest city in the county.
The federal investigation included findings that the Phoenix Police Department routinely violated the rights of unhoused people, including destroying their personal belongings.
Some local politicians called the Trump administration’s retraction “vindication,” while others, like Gallego, have pledged to pursue reforms regardless.
David Saccoccio, who suffered a broken arm when a police projectile hit him during a protest, told the local ABC affiliate the move was disheartening. “We have these rights, constitutional rights, but when do they get upheld?” Saccoccio asked.
Louisiana: “Erasing the investigation like it never happened.”
State leaders in Louisiana have shown little interest in embracing federal findings or recommendations regarding the State Police. The federal investigation began after the 2019 death of Ronald Greene, a motorist who troopers beat, tased and shackled face-down on the pavement after a traffic stop. The resulting report included findings that the Louisiana State Police routinely used excessive force, escalated minor encounters and failed to hold troopers accountable for abuse.
Gov. Jeff Landry and state Attorney General Liz Murrill both strongly criticized the investigation’s findings as politically motivated and praised the decision to walk them back. The agency did implement some changes after public scrutiny tied to the Greene case, revising its use-of-force policy and establishing a Force Investigation Unit to review some violent incidents.
Those efforts are not enough for Louisiana state Rep. C. Denise Marcelle. “I’m appalled, but I have to tell you, I’m not at all surprised,” Marcelle told The Marshall Project. “At this point, if they are just erasing the investigation like it never happened, there’s nothing worse they can do.”
Trenton, Oklahoma City, Mount Vernon
Investigations into these three smaller jurisdictions drew less national attention than others, and none resulted in a framework for a consent decree.
In Oklahoma City, the feds found that the department discriminated against people with behavioral health disabilities, in part by sending armed officers to mental health crises. Mark Nelson, the president of the OKC Fraternal Order of Police, was pleased by this week’s move away from federal oversight. “Can we agree on some things that we can do better moving forward? Absolutely. Do we need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for some fed [to] monitor that? No. That needs to stay here in Oklahoma City,” Nelson told KOCO.
In Trenton, New Jersey, the federal report included findings that officers were stopping and searching pedestrians and drivers without probable cause. Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora said that while he didn’t agree with all of the findings, the police department had already carried out most of the recommendations in the investigative report.
And in Mount Vernon, New York, where the federal findings included unjustified strip searches, local leaders had not responded to media inquiries about the Trump administration’s reversal as of Friday.