Attorney General Jeff Sessions has instructed Justice Department officials to review the reform agreements reached between the department's civil rights division under the Obama administration and police departments nationwide. In a memo, Sessions says the point of the review is to make sure the agreements are aligned with the Trump administration's focus on protecting police and improving officer morale.
Sessions said his top two deputies will review the reform agreements, also known as consent decrees. The memo was released right after DOJ lawyers from the civil rights department asked a federal judge to postpone for at least 90 days a hearing on a consent decree with Baltimore's police department. That agreement, designed to keep officers from violating the civil rights of residents, was reached in the wake of Freddie Grey's death in 2015 from injuries sustained while in Baltimore police custody.
In a filing on Monday, the DOJ said it needed time to determine if the agreement fits with "the directives of the president and the attorney general." This move is opposed by Baltimore Mayor Catherine E. Pugh and Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, with Pugh telling The Washington Post, "Any interruption in moving forward may have the effect of eroding trust that we are working hard to establish." Civil rights activists are also concerned that this new directive could put in jeopardy agreements that have not yet been finalized, including one with Chicago's police department.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Strava vs. Garmin: the row splitting the running communityUnder The Radar The legal dispute between the two titans of exercise tech is like ‘Mom and Dad fighting’
-
Bad Bunny: Why MAGA is incensedFeature The NFL announced Latino artist Bad Bunny as the Super Bowl halftime headliner, sparking MAGA outrage
-
Supreme Court: Judging 20 years of RobertsFeature Two decades after promising to “call balls and strikes,” Chief Justice John Roberts faces scrutiny for reshaping American democracy
-
Man charged over LA’s deadly Palisades Firespeed read 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht has been arrested in connection with the fire that killed 12 people
-
4 dead in shooting, arson attack in Michigan churchSpeed Read A gunman drove a pickup truck into a Mormon church where he shot at congregants and then set the building on fire
-
2 kids killed in shooting at Catholic school massSpeed Read 17 others were wounded during a morning mass at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis
-
Australian woman found guilty of mushroom murdersspeed read Erin Patterson murdered three of her ex-husband's relatives by serving them toxic death cap mushrooms
-
Combs convicted on 2 of 5 charges, denied bailSpeed Read Sean 'Diddy' Combs was acquitted of the more serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking
-
Sniper kills 2 Idaho firefighters in ambushSpeed Read A man started a wildfire, then fired a rifle at first responders when they arrived
-
Weinstein convicted of sex crime in retrialSpeed Read The New York jury delivered a mixed and partial verdict at the disgraced Hollywood producer's retrial
-
'King of the Hill' actor shot dead outside homespeed read Jonathan Joss was fatally shot by a neighbor who was 'yelling violent homophobic slurs,' says his husband
