Key takeaways:

• The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is ending federal police reform agreements in Minneapolis and Louisville, reversing years of accountability efforts.
• Civil rights attorneys are resigning from the DOJ en masse, citing Trump’s influence as the reason.
• Local leaders say they’ll continue reform efforts, but without federal backing, the future of oversight is uncertain.

Just days before the five-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it is backing out of federal reform deals with Minneapolis and Louisville — two cities forever linked to the modern fight against police brutality. The agreements, known as consent decrees, were meant to overhaul local policing practices after federal investigations exposed years of unconstitutional conduct, racial discrimination and excessive use of force.

But under President Trump’s second term, the Justice Department is changing course. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon called the reform efforts “factually unjustified” and blamed them for pushing what she described as an “anti-police agenda.” In her words: “Overbroad police consent decrees divest local control of policing from communities where it belongs, turning that power over to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats.” She added, “Today, we are ending the Biden Civil Rights Division’s failed experiment of handcuffing local leaders and police departments.”

Trump-era DOJ priorities target diversity, drop oversight of local police

The move doesn’t stop with Minneapolis and Louisville. The DOJ says it’s also ending federal investigations into police departments like Phoenix, Memphis, Oklahoma City, and more, despite previously finding patterns of excessive force and civil rights violations. Instead, Dhillon and the Trump administration are shifting the division’s focus to enforcing executive orders on antisemitism and dismantling diversity programs.

In Minneapolis, the city is already under a separate, court-enforced agreement with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, and officials say that’s not changing. “While the Department of Justice walks away... our department and the state court consent decree [aren't] going anywhere,” said Commissioner Rebecca Lucero.

Louisville also reached a deal with the DOJ in late 2024, following years of protests after the police killing of Breonna Taylor. That agreement, too, now won’t be enforced at the federal level. Still, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg insisted the city will push forward: “We are moving ahead rapidly to continue implementing police reform that ensures constitutional policing while providing transparency and accountability to our community.”

DOJ faces massive staff exodus as civil rights work gets dismantled

This announcement came on the heels of reporting that roughly 70 percent of attorneys in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division have either quit or plan to leave. According to NPR, many are walking away in protest of the department’s new direction. “The division is being decimated,” said former DOJ attorney Stacey Young. “It doesn't exist to enact the president's own agenda. That's a perversion of the separation of powers and the role of an independent Justice Department.”

For many, the message is clear: The Trump administration is rewriting the role of the DOJ and pulling back from a fight that millions took to the streets for.