Federal Judge Throws Out Louisville-DOJ Deal on Police

A federal judge in Kentucky has dismissed Louisville's proposed settlement with the US Department of Justice over police changes after the department withdrew its support of the plan. The Justice Department announced in May it was canceling proposed consent decrees with Louisville and Minneapolis that sought to curb police racial bias and abuses after the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor that spurred nationwide protests in summer 2020. US District Judge Benjamin Beaton wrote in a ruling Wednesday that "the responsibility to lead the Louisville Metro Police Department in compliance with federal law must remain with the city's elected representatives and the people they serve," the AP reports.

A judge in May dismissed Minneapolis' proposed consent decree, which places a federal officer in charge of tracking the progress of changes laid out in the agreement. Justice Department officials under the Biden administration conducted a multiyear investigation in Louisville prompted by the fatal shooting of Taylor and police responses to public protests in 2020. A draft of the investigation was released in early 2023, alleging that the Louisville Police Department "discriminates against Black people in its enforcement activities," uses excessive force, and conducts searches based on invalid warrants. New DOJ leaders accused the Biden Justice Department of using flawed legal theories to judge police departments and pursuing costly and burdensome consent decrees.

The consent decrees with Louisville and Minneapolis were approved by the Justice Department in the final weeks of the Biden administration, but the settlements had to be approved by a judge. Beaton wrote that his ruling "doesn't prevent the parties from undertaking the hard work of reform themselves." In a statement Friday, a spokesman for Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said he's "committed to ongoing reforms" and "did something no mayor in the country has done—he voluntarily created and implemented" Louisville's own reform plan.