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 basic answerable for 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 regulation enforcement—they’re one of the crucial highly effective instruments for cracking down on severe misconduct.
The Trump administration, nonetheless, sees them as authorities overreach and is reversing course.
The Justice Division stated Wednesday that it might transfer to dismiss the Louisville and Minneapolis consent decrees, which it claims had no “legally or factually adequate basis” and would result in “years of micromanagement” and “potentially hundreds of millions” in compliance prices.
The transfer comes simply days forward of the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s homicide. On Might 25, 2020, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered Floyd by kneeling on his neck for almost 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.
A demonstrator protests outdoors the Minnesota State Capitol in Might 2020, following the police homicide of George Floyd.
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) have been arguably essentially the most concrete reforms to come back out of that effort. Although signed, neither settlement had been finalized by a decide.
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 well-liked crusades, like his current concentrate on alleged antisemitism on school campuses. It additionally comes as some on the suitable transfer to recast Floyd’s homicide, together with current 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 will implement every reform outlined in the consent decree,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey stated. “Accountability isn’t optional. … The public can count on clear, measurable proof that our reforms are moving forward.”
However Trump’s DOJ is making its place clear: When you’re looking for justice by means of federal oversight, you’re by yourself.
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