The Justice Department announced its decision just before the five-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced its decision to cancel an agreement with Minneapolis aimed at reforming its police department, a move that followed the murder of George Floyd. The department is also looking to void a similar agreement with Louisville, Kentucky, indicating it no longer wishes to pursue these cases.
After releasing a critical report in 2023, the Justice Department under the Biden administration secured a consent decree with Minneapolis in January. This agreement was designed to revamp the police department’s training and use-of-force policies under the oversight of a court.
This overhaul required the green light from a federal court in Minnesota. However, when the Trump administration took office, it sought and received a delay to weigh its options and, on Wednesday, informed the court of its intention not to move forward. A similar motion was expected to be filed in a federal court in Kentucky.
“After an extensive review by current Department of Justice and Civil Rights Division leadership, the United States no longer believes that the proposed consent decree would be in the public interest,” said the Minnesota motion, signed by Andrew Darlington, acting chief of the special litigation section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The United States will no longer prosecute this matter.”
The Justice Department announced its decision just before the five-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. Then-officer Derek Chauvin used his knee on May 25, 2020, to pin the Black man to the pavement for 9 1/2 minutes in a case that sparked protests around the world and a national reckoning with racism and police brutality.
However, no immediate changes are expected to affect the Minneapolis Police Department, which is operating under a similar consent decree with the Minnesota Human Rights Department.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara reiterated at a news conference Tuesday that his department would abide by the terms of the federal agreement as it was signed, regardless of what the Trump administration decided.
The city in 2023 reached a settlement agreement with the state Human Rights Department to remake policing, under court supervision, after the agency issued a blistering report in 2022 that found that police had long engaged in a pattern of racial discrimination.
Minnesota Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero said the state court decree “isn’t going anywhere.”
“Under the state agreement, the City and MPD must make transformational changes to address race-based policing,” Lucero said in a statement. “The tremendous amount of work that lies ahead for the City, including MPD, cannot be understated. And our Department will be here every step of the way.”
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