Tag: Consent Decree

POLICE REFORM BY DECREE:HOW DOJ ENACTS ITS POLICING AGENDA | LELDF RESEARCH BRIEF | AUGUST 2023

Consent decrees are a blunt instrument for enacting police reform. The approach has proven ill-suited at enacting effective change in law enforcement agencies. These coercive reforms face institutional resistance from departments and their personnel and fall victim to mission creep from the unaccountable lawyers, judges, and bureaucrats who oversee the design and later the implementation of the reforms. The situation worsened significantly as the Obama Administration increased the use of consent decrees, a policy resumed under the Biden Department of Justice.

Often built on limited and flimsy evidence, the Justice Department’s allegations against police agencies put local jurisdictions in a near impossible position to contest civil rights violations findings.

Get the report HERE

ACLU: Violent Policing Continues in Cities Where Trump DOJ Abandoned Reform — ProPublica

Police forces with records of unconstitutional policing continued to engage in excessive force even as the Trump administration declared federal oversight unnecessary, according to a new yearlong review by the ACLU.
— Read on www.propublica.org/article/aclu-trump-police-reform-doj-minneapolis-louisville-phoenix-memphis

Get a copy of the PDF HERE

Torrance Police Department agrees to reforms with the California Department of Justice | LAist

This is a perfect example that police oversight and accountability still exist. The federal DOJ should not be the leader in police oversight and accountability. The police department itself should be first followed by any other entities such as county state. This here is an example of California’s state level DOJ conducting an investigation on a local police department. The department agreed to the reforms following a racist texting scandal in 2021.
— Read on laist.com/news/criminal-justice/torrance-police-department-reforms-california-department-of-justice

Looking at “Ferguson” by Washington University Journal of Law and Policy

Below are links to 2 issues from the Washington University Journal of Law and Policy.
Both issues focus on the Michael Brown death involving P/O Darren Wilson in Ferguson Missouri. Volume 49, Issue 1, 2015 are articles immediately after the Brown/Wilson event. Volume 78, Issue 1, 2025 is a 10 year follow-up to the Ferguson incident.

Volume 49 • Issue 1 • 2015

Notable Articles:

Volume 78 • Issue 1 • 2025 • Ten Years and Ten Miles: Reflecting on “Ferguson”

Notable Articles:

Minneapolis mayor issues executive order implementing police department’s consent decree after DOJ’s dismissal – CBS Minnesota

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey issued an executive order on Tuesday instructing the city to fully implement all reforms outlined in a federal consent decree weeks after its dismissal.
— Read on www.cbsnews.com/amp/minnesota/news/minneapolis-consent-decree-executive-order/