As former President Donald Trump pushes efforts that, according to the ACLU, “encourage police brutality and dismantle oversight,” the organization is launching a new campaign to hold law enforcement accountable in seven states where federal investigations uncovered systemic abuse.
“Five years ago, the world watched the murder of George Floyd for over nine excruciating minutes,” the ACLU wrote, recalling the global wave of protests that followed. Millions of people took to the streets to denounce police violence and racial injustice.
In New York City, the ACLU noted, lawful protesters marching through the Bronx were met with brutal tactics by NYPD officers. “Officers in riot gear encircled them, trapped them, and then assaulted them with batons and fists,” the ACLU reported. One woman pleaded that she couldn’t breathe, but “officers looked away,” drawing a chilling parallel to Floyd’s final words.
The organization emphasized that this conduct is far from isolated. “Police department policies, practices, and culture encourage police to disregard civil rights protections,” the ACLU argued, asserting that such culture is entrenched in law enforcement institutions across the country.
Following Floyd’s death, the Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) launched “thorough investigations into urban and rural police departments,” particularly in communities long under-resourced and neglected. According to the ACLU, the DOJ initiated 12 investigations, 11 of which were completed before Trump returned to office in January 2025.
“In every place they investigated,” the ACLU stated, “they found police had a practice of violating constitutional rights that was so common it had effectively become policy.”
In seven states—Massachusetts, New York, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arizona, and Minnesota—the DOJ uncovered both a “routine use of excessive force” and the “disproportionate targeting of Black people.”
“These reports are devastating accounts of human suffering,” the ACLU said. In Louisville, officers reportedly set a police dog on a 14-year-old child, leaving him badly injured. In Memphis, officers “punched and kicked people who were handcuffed or otherwise already restrained.” In New York, the ACLU reported that nearly every arrested person was strip-searched, reinforcing patterns of racial and constitutional violations.
In each of the seven states, investigators confirmed that police abuses were not the actions of a few “bad apples” but the result of official “policies, practices, and culture.”
Historically, the federal government used consent decrees—court-enforced agreements—to require departments to correct unconstitutional behavior. But the ACLU warned that such accountability is now unraveling under Trump.
“In an executive order issued in April,” the ACLU reported, Trump directed the DOJ to draft guidance encouraging police to “aggressively police communities” and called on the Department of Defense to expand police militarization.
The ACLU also stated that Trump “directed the attorney general to criminally prosecute local actors who supposedly interfere with policing,” calling such “interference” a euphemism for requiring police to follow constitutional standards.
Last week, the DOJ withdrew consent decrees aimed at addressing widespread constitutional violations in Minneapolis and Louisville and retracted findings in states including Arizona, New Jersey, New York, and Louisiana.
“These actions do not just make it harder to achieve the change we once envisioned,” the ACLU said. “They send a message that the government is willing to look away from harm being inflicted on our communities—even when the harm is plain as day.”
Despite these setbacks, the ACLU emphasized that communities have never relied solely on the federal government. “While the DOJ has played a crucial role,” the organization noted, “police reform has often been advanced by local coalitions that demand change in their own backyards.”
To support those efforts, the ACLU launched the Seven States Safety Campaign in partnership with grassroots organizations. “We are filling the police-accountability void by monitoring police violence and continuing the push for reform,” the group stated.
As part of the campaign, the ACLU has filed public records requests in each of the seven states. These requests seek documentation of use-of-force incidents, stops, department policies, officer misconduct, and police-perpetrated sexual violence.
“These documents,” the ACLU argued, “will allow us and our community partners to understand where problems persist and what reforms are needed.”
The organization stressed that law enforcement agencies must comply with transparency laws. “The demands fit comfortably within what they’re required to provide under state law,” the ACLU said. “If they don’t, we’ll see them in court.”
The ACLU warned that the stakes remain high. “The commitment to ending police brutality remains strong because people understand that safety must include safety from police violence.”
Reflecting on Floyd’s death, the ACLU stated that “this untenable violence can be avoided.” The group argued that Trump’s rejection of reform “is a manifestation of an ongoing, urgent national problem with police brutality, especially toward Black and brown people.”
In its closing message, the ACLU affirmed: “State and local officials have the power to implement reforms that prevent police abuse and ensure that police comply with the Constitution. Protecting civil rights is not optional if we want to live in a just and safe society.”
