The U.S. Justice Department is dismissing police reform and oversight agreements in Minneapolis and Louisville just days ahead of the fifth anniversary of the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.
The consent decrees came in response to Floyd’s murder, as well as the Louisville police killing of Breonna Taylor on March 13, 2020, after federal investigations found patterns of unconstitutional and racist policing practices in both cities.
The Trump administration disputed those findings and dismissed the consent decrees as “federal micromanagement.”
The DOJ is also ending civil rights investigations into police departments in Memphis; Phoenix; Oklahoma City; Trenton, New Jersey; and Mount Vernon, New York. Both Minneapolis and Louisville, which are run by Democratic mayors, said they would nonetheless move ahead with the planned reforms.
