Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks about gun violence prevention at the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC on April 8, 2021.
Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday revoked Trump-era limits on assent decisions, which the Justice Department has used to enforce reforms in police departments accused of widespread misconduct.
Garland, who fulfilled a campaign promise made by President Joe Biden, said in a memorandum that the Justice Department “will return to the traditional process” that existed before former President Donald Trump’s administration tightly restricted the civil rights instrument.
“Together, we will continue the ministry’s legacy to advance the rule of law, protect the public, and work with state and local government agencies to achieve those goals,” Garland said in the memo, which was directed to US attorneys and other DOJs. sent. leaders.
The policy reversal comes amid historically charged relationships between police departments and black communities. A string of fatalities involving police over the past year, most notably the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, sparked waves of nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism.
Derek Chauvin, the white former police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes before he died, is on trial for murder. The recent Minneapolis shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old black man, has sparked more protests in Minnesota.
Consent decisions are court agreements that can be used to resolve violations of law or systemic misconduct discovered during federal investigations of state or local law enforcement agencies.
For example, after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, the DOJ opened an investigation with the Ferguson Police Department for “an alleged pattern or practice of unlawful misconduct” and other issues. Less than a year later, the DOJ said it found “some patterns or practices of unconstitutional behavior.”
In April 2016, a federal judge approved the assent decision between Ferguson and the DOJ, which required major changes in the police force.
Just before he was fired by Trump in November 2018, then Attorney General Jeff Sessions signed a memo curtailing the Justice Department’s use of consent decisions.
The changes to the sessions include a requirement that consent decisions must be approved by senior management and contain an expiration date, rather than being in effect until the court rules that the case can be closed.
“I revoke the November 2018 memorandum,” Garland said in his memo.
As a presidential candidate, Biden vowed that under his administration the DOJ will “once again use its authority to stamp out unconstitutional or illegal police work.”