The Justice Department under the Trump administration has withdrawn from key police reform agreements in Minneapolis and Louisville, effectively halting efforts initiated during the Biden era to increase federal oversight of local law enforcement. As reported by The Washington Post on Wednesday, the department’s civil rights division, now led by Harmeet K. Dhillon, is not only abandoning these high-profile accountability deals but also closing investigations into several other police departments.
According to The Post, Dhillon stated the department would rescind the federal government’s conclusions that multiple local law enforcement agencies had violated constitutional rights. She announced this decision just days before the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, a moment widely viewed as a catalyst for renewed scrutiny of policing in America. “I was not confident that the Justice Department could stand up and justify these in court,” Dhillon said of the consent decrees with Minneapolis and Louisville, which she criticized as “reliant on faulty legal theories.”
The Post reports that the move to abandon the decrees is part of Dhillon’s broader effort to reshape the DOJ’s civil rights division. That shift includes abandoning a central focus on racial discrimination in favor of investigating campus antisemitism, diversity initiatives, and other cultural issues that align with the Trump administration’s agenda. Since Dhillon assumed leadership last month, roughly half of the division’s lawyers have reportedly left.
During the Biden administration, the DOJ had expanded its oversight of local law enforcement, launching over a dozen civil rights investigations into police departments and documenting widespread misconduct. These investigations resulted in proposed consent decrees—formal agreements to implement reforms—in cities like Minneapolis and Louisville, where federal investigators found patterns of excessive force, discrimination, and unconstitutional policing practices.
But under Trump, the DOJ reversed course. In court filings, the department claimed it no longer believed the agreements “would be in the public interest.” The decision stunned civil rights advocates and federal officials who helped craft the proposals. Kristen Clarke, who led the Civil Rights Division during the Biden administration, told The Post the decrees were “carefully negotiated with the full support of law enforcement leaders and local officials.”
Advocacy groups and legal experts condemned the move as a setback for police accountability. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump told The Post, “These moves will only deepen the divide between law enforcement and the people they are sworn to protect and serve. Trust is built with transparency and accountability, not with denial and retreat.”
The announcement’s timing drew additional criticism, coming just days before the anniversary of George Floyd’s death. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey questioned the DOJ’s motives: “They had every opportunity to move for a dismissal in the months previous to right now. It is predictable that they would move for a dismissal the very same week that George Floyd was murdered five years ago.”
Earlier DOJ reports had detailed disturbing findings: the Minneapolis Police Department was found to use excessive force and discriminate against residents, while the Louisville Metro Police Department was implicated in unconstitutional behavior following the 2020 killing of Breonna Taylor. Yet despite these conclusions, Assistant Attorney General Dhillon cast doubt on the credibility and cost-effectiveness of federal oversight, claiming the consent decrees “strip away local control” and were based on questionable methodology.
The Post also noted that the department is now conducting a broader review of all prior investigations, though not all have been overturned. Notably, findings against the police departments in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Lexington, Mississippi, remain in place.
Despite the federal retreat, local leaders in Minneapolis and Louisville have pledged to continue reform efforts. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg announced that the city would move forward with changes aligned with the original agreement, including the appointment of an independent monitor. “As promised, we are moving ahead rapidly to continue implementing police reform that ensures constitutional policing while providing transparency and accountability to the public,” he said.
The American Civil Liberties Union also responded by seeking public records from DOJ investigations, aiming to provide communities with the information they need to push for reform independently. As Christy E. Lopez, who oversaw police investigations under the Obama administration, told The Post, “The Department of Justice can retract those findings reports, but they can’t retract those facts.”
