Associated Press
Are police consent decrees an asset? Depends on who you ask
The Minneapolis Police Department will face the intense scrutiny of a federal program after a state investigation spurred by the killing of George Floyd concluded that the city’s officers stop and arrest Black people more than white people, use force more often on people of color and maintain a culture in which racist language is tolerated. The court enforced plan, known as a consent decree, has been credited with bringing significant reform in some places but scorned by critics elsewhere as ineffective and a waste of taxpayer money. The 1994 crime bill gave the Department of Justice the ability to investigate police agencies for patterns or practices of unconstitutional policing, and to require agencies to meet specific goals before federal oversight can be removed.
