Louisville and Minneapolis say police will honor reform agreements even if Justice Department backs out

(CNN) — One day after the Trump administration injected fresh uncertainty into the fate of Justice Department agreements aimed at reforming local police departments with histories of misconduct and abuse, city leaders in in Minneapolis and Louisville pledged to follow through with agreed-upon reforms no matter what.

“It’s unfortunate the Trump administration may not be interested in cooperating with us to improve policing and support our community, but make no mistake, we have the tools, the resolve, and the community’s backing to fulfill our promise to the people of Minneapolis,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, told CNN in a statement on Thursday.

“Our work will not be stopped,” he added.

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg’s office similarly said in a statement that he and the city’s police chief “remain committed to implementing the reforms” set forth in the reform agreement with the Justice Department, known as a consent decree.

“Regardless of what happens in federal court, Louisville Metro Government and LMPD will move forward and honor our commitment to meaningful improvements and reforms,” Greenberg’s office said.

The Louisville decree was reached in mid-December after a yearslong investigation into the city’s police department following the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in 2020. The agreement with Minneapolis reached earlier this month came years after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of city police officers and a DOJ probe found the department’s officers used excessive force, including “unjustified deadly force.”

In a significant – yet expected – move on Wednesday, the Trump administration said it was putting a halt to agreements that require reforms of police departments where the Justice Department found a pattern of misconduct.

The Biden Justice Department opened a dozen such “pattern or practice” investigations into police departments across the country, but some consent decrees reached in the waning days of the administration hadn’t yet been approved by a federal judge – a key final step that would have shielded them from attack by the new administration.

“The new administration may wish to reconsider settlements and consent decrees negotiated and approved by the prior administration,” said a memo issued by acting Associate Attorney General Chad Mizelle.

Legal experts said that while a court-approved consent decree would have ensured police departments complied with the reforms set out in the agreements through an independent monitor, the cities are still able to implement them themselves, including through agreements reached with state attorneys general.

“Well, if it’s not finalized the judge obviously would have the option of saying one of the two parties in the negotiation has dropped out, so there’s no point in proceeding and could dismiss the entire thing,” said Dennis Kenney, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

“The agency doesn’t actually need the consent decree to make the changes,” he added. “That’s within their power. And it may well be that that just simply negotiating may be enough that they’ve identified the things that that they should be evolving and should be changing.”

Should the Trump administration ask the judges overseeing the consent decrees to not approve them, it’s possible that such a request could be rebuffed. Such was the case in 2017 when the Justice Department attempted to upend an Obama-era consent decree for Baltimore’s police department that hadn’t yet been approved by a judge by the time the new administration took over.

Minneapolis’ police department is already under a court-approved consent decree that was reached between the city and state’s Department of Human Rights, though that agreement isn’t as sweeping as the proposed federal one.

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