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Trump administration to scrap police reform measures in some US cities

Nadine Yousif
BBC News
Getty Images Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara listens as Attorney General Merrick B. Garland (out of frame) addresses the findings of a Justice Department investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department during a press conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota on June 16, 2023.Getty Images
An agreement between the Biden-era justice department and police in Minneapolis is among many reform initiatives being rolled back by the Trump administration.

The Trump administration said it will roll back Biden-era police reform efforts in cities where there has been controversy over high-profile police killings and brutality.

The US justice department said on Wednesday it will be dismissing oversight agreements reached with the police departments in Louisville, Kentucky and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

It will also be scrapping investigations into police constitutional violations in six other cities, including Phoenix and Memphis.

The announcement comes just days before the fifth anniversary of the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in 2020 after being arrested in Minneapolis, sparking protests and a national reckoning on racial inequ

The police officer involved, Derek Chauvin, was convicted of murder charges and is serving a 22-year prison sentence.

Announcing the move, the Department of Justice criticised the Biden administration for enacting "sweeping" oversight agreements "that would have imposed years of micromanagement" of local police by federal courts.

The agreements would were "handcuffing" local departments, said Harmeet K Dhillon, the assistant attorney general of the justice department's civil rights division

The justice department said it will also move to dismiss two lawsuits filed against police in Louisville and Minneapolis that accuse law enforcement of unconstitutional police practices.

Investigations into several other police departments will also be closed.

The Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden, led by then-attorney general Merrick Garland, had opened civil investigations into 12 state and local law enforcement agencies since 2021.

Four of those - in Minneapolis, Louisville, Phoenix and Lexington, Mississippi - were completed, and issued reports of systemic police misconduct.

The investigations were a result of mounting public pressure to address instances of police brutality after several high-profile cases of police killings of black Americans, which led to accusations of systemic racism against law enforcement agencies across the US.

Among those cases are the deaths of Mr Floyd and Breonna Taylor, a hospital worker who was shot multiple times and killed in Louisville as officers stormed her home in "no-knock" raid in 2020.

An ex-officer with the Louisville Metro Police, Brett Hankison, was found guilty of using excessive force in Ms Taylor's death.

The Biden-era justice department reached accountability agreements with both the Louisville and Minneapolis police departments, but they were not formally enacted.

They included measures like enhanced training, accountability, and improved data collection of police activity.

The Trump administration said those findings relied on "flawed methodologies and incomplete data".

The move comes amid a large upheaval of the justice department's civil rights division since Trump's re-election.

Around 70% of the department's lawyers have quit, according to current and former officials who spoke to NPR, over concerns of its changing priorities under the new Trump administration.