The killing of George Floyd five years ago by a Mininapolis police officer ignited what many reform defenders hoped that the national effort to end, or at least curb, excessive use of strength.
However, the Trump administration’s decision this week to reject lawsuits and to drop accountability agreements with many police departments can be retracted from some momentum, according to federal supervision supporters.
“The existence of a reform plan is one thing, but the guarantee of objective supervision is completely another,” said Michael Genako, a former public prosecutor who supervised cases of using cases.
The Ministry of Justice announced on Wednesday that it will drop the proposed approval decrees with Minyapolis and Louisville, Kentucky, and to end investigations into the police stations in Phoenix; Trenton, New Jersey; Memphis, Tennessee; Vernon Mountain, New York; Oklahoma City and Louisiana State Police.
The Menabolis approval decree was reached, an improvement plan to impose the court after an investigation into the abuse of civil rights, after Floyd’s death in 2020.
Floyd was unarmed when the police officer Derek Shaovin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes while he was handcuffed on the ground. Luisville’s agreement was reached after the death of Brio Runa Taylor in 2020, which police officers shot while sitting at her home in Kentucky.
Both murderers have sparked protests from the coast to the coast that consumed the last months of the first Trump administration and entered into a wave of investigations during the era of US Prosecutor Merik Garland in the Biden administration.
The assistant prosecutor Harry Delon said in a statement on Wednesday that the approval ceremonies were “Overbroad”, “in reality” and based on “an anti -police agenda.”
But abandoning these agreements can have a chilling effect on the efforts Already ongoing in Baltimore, Cleveland and Fergson, Missouri, where a white police officer Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was killed in 2014.
This agreement requires more training for police officers, political changes to reduce the use of force and a more powerful system for citizens to file complaints against officers. It also also requires more effort to do more to recruit colorful people.
“It is important not to exaggerate what the approval ceremonies do,” said Jin Ho Li from the Legal Defense Fund, referring to the Federal Courts Authority to enforce orders.
She added: “They are very important and often necessary to force the police stations to change their policies, to change their practices.” “But the approval ceremonies were never all, be everything.”
For example, the Chicago Police Department entered the approval decree in 2019, which is run by the state prosecutor. As a result, the federal government’s declaration does not affect the current reform efforts.
The approval ceremonies have a long history dating back to the crime bill for President Bill Clinton for the year 1994 and is implemented after investigations into civil rights violations or non -constitutional practices. These investigations do not focus on isolated cases, but on cultures and policies that lead to violations.
In response to the Trump administration’s announcement, the Maynabolis mayor Jacob Fry told the correspondents that his city “corresponds to every sentence, from each paragraph, from the 169 -page approval decree that we signed this year.”
Mayor of Luisville Craig Greenberg said his city adopts the police reform agreement that will include many goals from the federal approval decree, such as contracting with independent control to oversee the administration’s progress.
On the other hand, supporters of local control argue that societies are better equipped to manage their law enforcement agencies.
Mayor Kate Galigo, who refused to comply with Garland’s approval after the 2024 report, said she would continue to follow up on local reforms that serve the interests of their voters. I have argued that it would be irreplaceable to sign a contract without evaluating it first and asked about the ability of the Ministry of Justice to improve the local police forces.
According to the 126 -page report, which included data from 2016 to 2024, the Phoenix Police Department routinely committed “major and severe violations of federal and constitution” and lacks accountability, supervision and training. Among the biggest concerns highlighted by the Ministry of Justice are racial discrimination during police confrontations and the reckless use of force.
The Ministry of Justice has issued 36 recommendations, including improved training for the use of new force and policies for confrontations with the weak population. But Gallego and many members of the Council opposed the agreement, describing the unfounded accusations and others asking for a full review before adopting it.
The city has since adopted a series of reforms that aim to address the results of the Ministry of Justice. It has implemented a new use policy, set up new training materials in emergency situations and assembly of a civil review board.
“We will continue to search for every opportunity to ensure that we are serving our residents in the best possible way,” Galligo said in a statement. “I said several times that we will adopt reforms and see them through, regardless of the investigation of the Ministry of Justice, and I care about it.”
The approval ceremonies have achieved mixed results. In Los Angeles, who came out of its 12 -year agreement in 2013, the police department continues to face additional claims and lawsuits.
Recently, many students from the University of California, Los Angeles, filed a lawsuit against LAPD, on the pretext of assault, battery and other violations by officers during the campus protests last year. The students said in the lawsuit that they shot the rubber bullets and were subject to an unnecessary force in a pro -Palestinians camp.
A spokesman for the union, who represents the police officers, invited these unfounded allegations and inflammation.
In Baltimore, where the police department entered the approval decree following the 2015 Freddy Gray killing, who died after being injured in the spinal cord while the police detention, the reform efforts are still ongoing.
The force is now in the “evaluation” stage of its agreement, according to the city’s information board. In December, the Ministry of Justice praised its progress, which led to a partial termination of the agreement.
