President Donald Trump’s Justice Division on Wednesday scrapped police reform agreements with Minneapolis and Louisville, Kentucky—two cities the place high-profile police killings of Black Individuals ignited nationwide protests—abandoning what was left of the previous Biden administration’s push for accountability.
Harmeet Dhillon, assistant lawyer normal in control of the division’s Civil Rights Division, claimed the consent decrees constituted an “anti-police agenda,” saying in a press launch:
Overbroad police consent decrees divest native management of policing from communities the place it belongs, turning that energy over to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, usually with an anti-police agenda. … At the moment, we’re ending the Biden Civil Rights Division’s failed experiment of handcuffing native leaders and police departments with factually unjustified consent decrees.
Consent decrees are legally binding courtroom agreements meant to implement civil rights reforms in departments discovered to have engaged in unconstitutional practices. Although unpopular with police unions and conservative officers—together with Trump, who’s spent years cozying as much as legislation enforcement—they’re one of many strongest instruments for cracking down on critical misconduct.
The Trump administration, nonetheless, sees them as authorities overreach and is reversing course.
The Justice Division mentioned Wednesday that it could transfer to dismiss the Louisville and Minneapolis consent decrees, which it claims had no “legally or factually sufficient foundation” and would result in “years of micromanagement” and “doubtlessly lots of of tens of millions” in compliance prices.
The transfer comes simply days forward of the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s homicide. On Could 25, 2020, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered Floyd by kneeling on his neck for practically 10 minutes. Weeks earlier, police in Louisville had shot and killed medical employee Breonna Taylor in her dwelling. The killings touched off historic protests and calls for for systemic change.
In response, former President Joe Biden’s Justice Division launched a minimum of a dozen investigations into police departments throughout the nation and launched scathing findings detailing unconstitutional policing in a number of cities. The consent decrees with Minneapolis (January 2025) and Louisville (December 2024) had been arguably essentially the most concrete reforms to return out of that effort. Although signed, neither settlement had been finalized by a choose.
Trump’s DOJ isn’t stopping there, although. Officers say they’re additionally ending ongoing investigations into different departments, together with these in Phoenix, Memphis, and Oklahoma Metropolis, basically gutting the division’s civil rights enforcement efforts.
These strikes align with the Trump administration’s broader pivot away from racial justice and civil rights—and towards Trump’s most popular crusades, like his latest concentrate on alleged antisemitism on faculty campuses. It additionally comes as some on the precise transfer to recast Floyd’s homicide, together with latest calls by right-wing figures for Chauvin to obtain a presidential pardon, although it’s unclear if one is forthcoming.
On this administration, the precedence appears to be punishing protesters and whistleblowers, not defending victims of state violence.
Nonetheless, metropolis leaders are promising to maneuver forward with reforms, even with out federal enforcement.
“We are going to implement each reform outlined within the consent decree,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey mentioned. “Accountability isn’t non-compulsory. … The general public can depend on clear, measurable proof that our reforms are transferring ahead.”
However Trump’s DOJ is making its place clear: When you’re looking for justice via federal oversight, you’re by yourself.
