The US cities left behind as Trump ends key police accountability reforms

The Guardian

4 days ago

US communities that have contended with police violence are losing a major accountability measure to curb abuse. In late May, the Trump administration's Department of Justice announced a reversal in investigations and consent decrees – agreements between federal officials to hold law enforcement agencies accountable to reform – for several major police departments. The move came years after the Biden administration launched investigations into some law enforcement agencies, specifically as racial justice protests kicked off in the summer of 2020.
Louisville metro police department (LMPD) is one department that saw its justice department investigation ended, despite its high-profile police controversies. In March 2020, LMPD officers shot and killed Breonna Taylor, a 27-year-old emergency room technician, as she slept in bed with her boyfriend. Police forcibly entered Taylor's home using a 'no-knock' warrant, firing 32 bullets into Taylor's home. Taylor's death sparked international outcry as the Black Lives Matter protests spread across the world.
Since 2012, LMPD has also come under scrutiny for its Violent Incident Prevention, Enforcement and Response Unit. Officers, who often wear plainclothes, were found to routinely violate the civil rights of Black and brown residents; the unit was dissolved in 2015. Following Taylor's death, the justice department launched an investigation into LMPD, determining in 2023 that it had '[engaged] in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law', including excessive force, unlawful searches and detentions, discriminating against Black people in their enforcement.
Louisville officials pledged to carry out reforms in response to the justice department's findings. A consent decree that was negotiated was still awaiting approval from a judge. But on 21 May, the Trump administration rolled back previous agreements and investigations to curb police abuse in Louisville and nearly two dozen other cities in the US.
'Today, we are ending the Biden Civil Rights Division's failed experiment of handcuffing local leaders and police departments with factually unjustified consent decrees,' said Harmeet K Dhillon, the head of the justice department's civil rights division, in an announcement.
For community activists in affected cities, the justice department's rollback on police reform doesn't entirely come as a shock. Donald Trump established himself as a 'law and order' candidate during the 2024 presidential election and his administration previously signaled that they would end police reform progress in April. Still, the justice department's rollback of reforms is a significant breakdown in progress towards ending police abuses. 'It's very disappointing that the Trump administration is having his DOJ abdicate their statutory authority to investigate police departments and other municipalities under pattern and practice allegations and to make sure that everyone's civil rights are being enforced,' said Kungu Njuguna, a policy strategist at the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky.
The justice department also announced that it would drop civil rights investigations looking into the conduct of several embattled law enforcement agencies including those in Phoenix, Arizona; Trenton, New Jersey; and Mount Vernon, New York. The agency has also ended a consent decree in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Consent decrees have long been used as a federal intervention into police departments: their implementation began with the passage of the 1994 crime bill, which included a small number of accountability measures for law enforcement. Those reforms were sparked by Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King in 1991 and protests that came after.
The decrees historically have varied in effectiveness. While legally binding, different administrations have weakened them based on their own partisan affiliation. But for community members, consent decrees and broader investigations into misconduct can represent a positive change forward. In Trenton, the justice department's oversight offered a 'glimmer' for residents, said Austin Edward, president of the NAACP Trenton chapter. 'For the first time, having the federal government actually come in and say: 'Something is going wrong here in Trenton,' and finally listening to what the people have been saying for a long time? That's where that hope lies,' he said. 'A lot of people are very disappointed with the fact that we don't have any other recourse at the moment.'
Despite the changes in federal oversight, some cities have already committed to passing reform. The Louisville mayor Craig Greenberg and the city's police chief Paul Humphrey promised to carry out the recommended changes, even without the consent decree. Trenton officials also promised to continue enacting reforms. (In 2024, a justice department investigation found that the Trenton police department engaged in a pattern of misconduct against city residents after police shot and paralyzed an unarmed Black man during a traffic stop.)
'We are moving ahead rapidly to continue implementing police reform that ensures constitutional policing while providing transparency and accountability to the public,' said Greenberg in a presser about the DOJ changes. 'I made a promise to our community, and we are keeping that promise.'
Njuguna said that the ACLU is still examining what exact reforms Louisville officials are planning to implement and how much they differ from the justice department's former recommendations. But critics have said it is unclear if city officials can be trusted to hold themselves accountable and implement the entirety of the justice department's previous recommendations. Greenberg himself publicly contested the justice department's findings on the LMPD in January 2025, later clarifying that he would accept the report.
'We're kind of in a low to zero environment of trust with the community and LMPD,' said Njuguna. 'Without that independent oversight from the federal government, I think it's hard for some people to believe that LMPD is capable of policing its own.'
In the meantime, activists and city officials have launched campaigns to bring attention to step backs in police reform. The People's Consent Decree, a list of demands for LMPD originally launched in 2024, has been gaining additional attention as the justice department ends their finding. The decree, which outlines demands for police accountability, was a collaborative effort between Louisville advocacy groups with the goal of having the city council adopt the measure. Involved groups, said Njuguna, are coming together to help educate the public on what a consent decree is and what rollbacks on progress are in effect. They hope to eventually see the plan implemented at a citywide level.