A new Justice Department investigation revealed that Memphis Police Department officers used excessive force, discriminated against black people and people with behavioral health disabilities, and engaged in illegal searches and arrests.
The results of the department’s 17-month investigation, which began after Memphis police killed 29-year-old Tyree Nichols in a traffic stop last year, are part of a report released Wednesday, with disappointing results. But for now, Memphis doesn’t need to act on the results.
Any legally binding commitment to reform would require further action by the DOJ, including a possible lawsuit and settlement with the city. It’s not certain the agency will — or can — take action before President-elect Donald Trump begins his second term. And if not, the Trump administration may choose not to oversee Memphis. Trump, As well as his associates At the Heritage Foundation and elsewhere, they’ve made it clear they’re less interested in efforts to hold police accountable than President Joe Biden.
This was first evident during the Trump administration, when the DOJ significantly scaled back its police oversight. Trump’s four years in office, DOJ just opened a new one Investigations into potential departmental civil rights violations, much less so 25 It was opened under former President Barack Obama And 12 It has opened under Biden. Additionally, it was much more reluctant to enter into legal agreements with cities About the necessary police reforms — is one of the department’s best tools for effecting policing changes.
“Based on the first Trump administration, I would expect that in the second Trump administration, civil or criminal investigations against the police will decline,” Jane Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project director for policing at the ACLU, told Vox.
What does federal oversight of the police entail?
Police departments have two main avenues for DOJ oversight: civil pattern-or-practice investigations and criminal investigations of individual crimes.
The Memphis investigation was ex. Pattern-or-pattern investigations can be triggered by a specific event, but try to check if there is a pattern to it. Systematic civil rights violations by the local police department. The DOJ’s Memphis investigation was prompted by the brutal police killing of Nichols—a black man who was Fresh and beaten by five officers After being pulled over for a traffic stop in the city last year — and aiming to test just how widespread such problems are. (That event is also its subject own separate federal criminal investigation.)
Once the DOJ completes its investigation and announces its findings, It usually files a case if it detects misconduct. Then a judge will enforce what’s known as a consent decree or court order for the city to implement reforms that both the locality and the DOJ agree to. These changes could include requirements that the police force reduce the frequency of use-of-force incidents and improve community trust in the police, among other possible provisions.
The court appoints an independent monitor to oversee the department’s efforts, who will monitor progress or violations of the consent decree. Cities that do not comply with the consent decree can be fined and face other penalties.
Memphis said it would not enter into discussions with the DOJ about potential reforms until it had an opportunity To review and defer report findings. And if the Trump administration decides not to pursue general litigation, Memphis likely won’t have to enter into a consent decree.
A similar scenario occurred in 2017 After the Obama administration identified police abuses in Chicago after a pattern-or-practice investigation and Trump’s DOJ Decided not to pursue the process further. (In that case, State of Illinois Steps taken to finalize A consent decree with the city.)
The Trump administration may withdraw from these investigations
During his 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly indicated his intention to empower the police, often making comments that suggested reducing federal oversight of law enforcement.
“We will give our police back the power, the protection, the respect they deserve.” He said in JulyDemocrats vow to end the so-called “war on police.”
He also talked about encouraging officers to use force, rather than curbing the practice: “They have to be incredibly tough,” Trump said. Police response against shopliftersClaim, too, that one Police “violent days” will end crime. Other policies that Trump has supported, such as The return of stop and frisk, Which has led to racial profiling in the pastAnd Providing military-grade equipment to local policeEmphasizes interest in empowering law enforcement.
Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation policy wish list Trump, mobilized by allies, projected a similar message, urging Dismissal of existing consent decree.
And it also offered a preview of how the DOJ could take a much lax approach to police oversight once the president-elect returns to office in Trump’s first term. It can do this in several ways, experts told Vox.
The first way is that it can roll back existing consent decrees that have already been executed. In 2017, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions tried to delay the implementation of a law. Obama Administration Consent Decree There had already been negotiations with Baltimore, but such efforts were blocked by the courts. Given this precedent, it will be difficult for the DOJ to eliminate the decrees entirely, although it may devote fewer resources to overseeing or assisting local department craft policies for training and other needs.
The second way is that it can effectively abandon investigations that have not yet resulted in a consent decree. Cities like Memphis and PhoenixFor example, it has yet to settle with the DOJ. If they fail to do so before the end of the Biden administration, it is unlikely that the Trump administration will follow suit. At that point, state governments, or civil rights organizations like the ACLU, could potentially step in and use the DOJ investigation to file their own lawsuits, aiming to force the courts to change these cities. In the interim, however, these cities will not face mandatory requirements for police reform.
During Trump’s first term, Sessions expressly instructed DOJ staff to “exercise particular caution” when agreeing to a consent decree with local governments, effectively telling them to do so in short order. Vox’s Ian Milheiser wrote that Sessions required DOJ lawyers to “get permission from several senior Justice Department officials before entering into the consent decree.”
“Technically … the attorney general is supposed to be somewhat independent of the president. But in reality … if the president says, you know, I’m not sure we need to get involved in these cases as aggressively as the previous administration did. [was]I think any attorney general would see tea leaves there,” Michael Genako, a former DOJ civil rights attorney and principal of the OIR Group, an independent auditor that works with cities to review police practices, told Vox.
A third way the Trump administration could reduce oversight is by opening fewer new investigations altogether. Fewer pattern-or-practice investigations have been opened in Trump’s first term than those of Biden and Obama, underscoring the possibility of this possibility.
The DOJ has unique authority and access to investigate misconduct by local police departments and take a deep dive into their day-to-day operations. State governments also have this power, but they tend to have fewer resources than the federal government — and they’re not backed by the same laws that strengthen federal investigations.
That means if Trump’s DOJ takes a step away from police oversight, there will be no comparable authority that can scrutinize departments to the same degree.
“The horrific attack on Tyree Nichols, this kind of police violence doesn’t come out of nowhere,” Borchetta said. “It always stems from some kind of department-wide problem, but it takes looking under the hood of the police department to understand what problem leads to this type of tragedy.”
