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A Minneapolis Police cruiser drives by as people demonstrate outside the Hennepin County Government Center on March 9, 2021 in Minneapolis. Stephen Maturen/Getty Images North America hide caption
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Stephen Maturen/Getty Images North America
The Justice Department is backing away from cases against police departments in Minneapolis and Louisville, Kentucky, reversing course on the use of consent decrees to help ensure accountability for law enforcement agencies.
The move comes only days before the anniversary of the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota nearly five years ago by Derek Chauvin, a white police officer.
Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, announced the plan to dismiss the lawsuits and retract findings by the Biden Justice Department about alleged constitutional violations by police.
"Today, we are ending the Biden Civil Rights Division's failed experiment of handcuffing local leaders and police departments with factually unjustified consent decrees," Dhillon said in a written statement.
The Justice Department said it would also close investigations of police in six other jurisdictions, listed below:
• Phoenix, Arizona
• Trenton, New Jersey
• Memphis, Tennessee
• Mount Vernon, New York
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
• Louisiana State Police
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
