DOJ dismisses mandated reforms, lawsuit against Louisville police department
The federal government is dismissing a consent decree and lawsuit aimed at reforming the troubled Louisville Metro Police Department, the United States Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
Louisville signed a “historic” consent decree with the Justice Department in December 2024 that sought to address civil rights violations in the department.
The agreement outlined changes that must be made to the police department’s policies, including for use of force, reporting, data collection, search warrants, street enforcement, arrests and citations.
The move came a few years after public outcry following the fatal police shooting of Louisville resident Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman and emergency room technician.
Former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced in 2023 that a DOJ investigation of Louisville found the city and police department routinely violate residents’ First and Fourth Amendment rights, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Safe Street Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The investigation found LMPD uses excessive force, conducts searches through unlawful stops, unlawfully arrests people of color, executes no-knock warrants unlawfully, violates protected speech and discriminates against those with behavioral health disabilities. They also found LMPD has deficiencies in investigating domestic violence and sexual assault cases.
But the Justice Department announced Wednesday it was moving to dismiss “Biden-era” lawsuits against police departments in Louisville and Minneapolis.
The move comes about a month after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that could altogether end federal consent decrees, which outline reform agreements between cities and the Justice Department.
Trump has argued consent decrees do not support U.S. law enforcement, instead “pursuing harmful, illegal race-and sex-based ‘equity’ policies.”
“When local leaders demonize law enforcement and impose legal and political handcuffs that make aggressively enforcing the law impossible, crime thrives and innocent citizens and small business owners suffer,” Trump wrote in the order.
Minneapolis’ consent decree was established in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd, which sparked protests nationwide.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said it will take “all necessary steps” to dismiss the Louisville and Minneapolis lawsuits with prejudice, to close the underlying investigations into the Louisville and Minneapolis police departments and retract the Biden administration’s findings of constitutional violations.
“Overbroad police consent decrees divest local control of policing from communities where it belongs, turning that power over to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, often with an anti-police agenda,” said Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general of the department’s civil rights division. “Today, we are ending the Biden Civil Rights Division’s failed experiment of handcuffing local leaders and police departments with factually unjustified consent decrees.”
Dhillon was sworn in April 7, by Attorney General Pamela Bondi.
In addition to Louisville and Minneapolis, the division is planning to close investigations in Phoenix; Trenton, New Jersey; Memphis, TN; Mount Vernon, NY; Oklahoma City; and Louisiana State Police.
Despite the development, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said the city remains committed to independently monitoring its policing.
“As promised, we are moving ahead rapidly to continue implementing police reform that ensures constitutional policing while providing transparency and accountability to our community,” Greenberg said in a press release. “I made a promise to our community, and we are keeping that promise.”
This is a developing story.
This story was originally published May 21, 2025 at 10:49 AM.
