Biden administration's probes of police agencies in jeopardy
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Police work following a shooting in Trenton, New Jersey, on March 16, 2024. Photo: Joe Lamberti/AFP via Getty Images
Federal probes into alleged civil rights abuses by a dozen cities' police departments haven't led to any reform agreements during the Biden administration — and are unlikely to do so in Donald Trump's second term.
Why it matters: The investigations by President Biden's Justice Department came in response to allegations of systemic, unconstitutional misconduct by the police departments, such as using excessive force and conducting illegal traffic stops.
- Such probes often lead to court-ordered consent decree agreements, which require police to impose various reforms.
- But Trump suggested during the presidential campaign that he equates such pacts to "defunding the police," or weakening law enforcement.
Zoom in: During Trump's first term, his administration refused to enter into any consent decrees to reform police departments, even after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020 put pressure on law enforcement agencies.
- Trump's administration unsuccessfully sought to withdraw from consent decrees negotiated during the Obama administration, but not yet finalized, in Chicago and Baltimore.
Biden's Justice Department launched investigations into these agencies:
- Phoenix Police Department
- Louisville (Ky.) Metro Police Department and Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government
- Louisiana State Police
- Worcester (Mass.) Police Department
- Minneapolis Police Department
- The City of Lexington (Miss.) and Lexington Police Department
- Rankin County (Miss.) Sheriff's Department
- Mount Vernon (N.Y.) Police Department
- New York (N.Y.) Police Department Special Victims Division
- Oklahoma City Police Department
- Memphis Police Department
- Trenton (N.J.) Police Department
Justice Department officials announced last month it had found that police in Trenton engaged in unconstitutional policing practices, including using excessive force and conducting illegal traffic stops.
- The DOJ said Trenton officers used pepper spray in about 15% of more than 800 physical encounters with the public.
- Two police units known for their heavy-handed tactics were disbanded after the DOJ launched its probe.
Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora told Axios he's unsure whether federal authorities and the city can negotiate a consent decree requiring new procedures before Trump enters office Jan. 20.
What they're saying: Trump's transition team did not respond to a request for comment on the police probes.
- Project 2025, the plan for Trump's second term put together by dozens of Trump allies, calls for Trump's administration to avoid entering into consent decrees or settlements that "bind" law enforcement agencies for "years or decades."
- Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general in Biden's Justice Department, said that "ensuring lawful, non-discriminatory, transparent, and effective policing is a top priority for the Justice Department. The Justice Department is steadfast in its commitment to ensuring the civil and constitutional rights of all Americans are protected."
Reality check: Some city leaders and public safety experts tell Axios that federal oversight of police departments has had mixed results. In some cases, they've driven up costs while doing little to curb violent crime, they say.
- A consent decree in Oakland, Calif., for example, has been in place for more than two decades.
- The city agreed to several reforms, including improving police misconduct investigations, to resolve a lawsuit brought by more than 100 residents who'd been targeted by a group of police officers known as the "Riders."
- But recently the department was criticized for its responses to an incident involving an alleged hit-and-run involving a high-ranking officer, and another case in which a homicide detective was accused of bribing a witness.
- Lawyers now want the police department placed into receivership, per the Oaklandside.
In Albuquerque, which has spent $40 million on reforms since entering into a consent decree in 2014, the police department's rate of deadly encounters is higher now than it was before the decree, per Searchlight New Mexico.
Yes, but: Police in Ferguson, Mo., are more racially diverse after federal authorities intervened in 2016 following the killing of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old Black man.
- Philadelphia also has had a significant decrease in the number of illegal stop-and-frisks since entering a consent degree 13 years ago, per a monitor's latest report.
- The DOJ doesn't oversee that consent decree, so "the Trump administration cannot make us stop," says Mary Catherine Roper, a civil rights attorney and former ACLU-PA deputy legal director who helped litigate the case.
In Newark, N.J. — where police have been under a consent decree since a federal probe into excessive force and "vast racial disparities" in arrests — an independent monitor recently wrote that Newark police officers used lawful force in 97% of cases after the decree went into effect.
- Larry Hamm, founder of the People's Organization for Progress, which has protested Newark police's brutality for decades, tells Axios that residents fear problems will rear "their ugly head again" if the consent decree is lifted.
