WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division announced Wednesday it’s dismissing last-minute lawsuits the Biden administration filed against two police departments after the 2024 election.
Federal judges overseeing cases against the Lousiville, Kentucky, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, police departments had “serious questions” that the Biden DOJ could not answer, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said during a press briefing.
Some questions presented during the cases included, “How did the Justice Department determine that Louisville Metro Police Department policing affects black people disproportionately relative to other races?” and “How often have officers unlawfully tased, punched, or kicked suspects?” Dhillon said.
“Once entered as a court order, a decree may bind elected officials and their successors for years, involve judges and court-appointed administrators in the innerworkings of local government, and shift policymaking and accountability from City Hall to the U.S. Courthouse,” District Court Judge Benjamin Beaton wrote in January, noting funding a court-appointed monitor for the Louisville Metro Police could alone cost “more than $7 million dollars.”
Former Attorney General Bill Barr declined requests from the Civil Rights Division to proceed with investigations against the two departments in 2020, Dhillon noted. The deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in these cities sparked protests and riots nationwide during the summer of 2020, with many major cities dealing with costly outbreaks of vandalism and violence.
The division will also close investigations into six other police departments in Phoenix, Arizona; Trenton, New Jersey; Memphis, Tennessee; Mount Vernon, New York; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and the Louisiana State Police, Dhillon announced Wednesday.
Kristen Clarke, who ran the Biden DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, has advocated for defunding the police, which Dhillon said this “informed” a lot of these investigations.
Dhillon noted the consent decrees dismissed Wednesday are “only a portion” of those outstanding.
“We are undertaking a review of all pending federal consent decrees that the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division requested with a view towards whether they should be concluded,” Dhillon said. “Many of these have lasted for twelve, thirteen, fourteen years, some even longer than that, with no end in sight, with police monitors being paid millions or tens of millions of dollars without solving the problems.”
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