Washington, DC - Patrick Yoes, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, applauded news that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) put an end to existing consent decrees in Louisville, Kentucky, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, today, restoring local control without burdensome Federal monitoring.
“Consent decrees have never worked and will never work. We need to focus on constructive and collaborative paths to reform without the destructive impacts like the increased crime and inflated costs that always come along with consent decrees,” Yoes declared. “We are grateful to U.S. Attorney General Bondi and her team at the Justice Department for this quick and decisive action.”
A consent decree is a court-enforceable agreement between a city (or other governing entity) and the DOJ typically stemming from a "pattern and practice" investigation. In a statement to the media, Harmeet K. Dhillon, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, stated that these consent decrees were “reliant on faulty legal theories.”
According to Axios, “most police agencies in federally court-ordered reform agreements saw violent crime rates skyrocket immediately.” In addition, fewer crimes are solved under consent decrees, which has a demoralizing impact on officers, lowering their motivation and effectiveness. These factors exacerbate the existential recruiting and retention crisis in the law enforcement profession and villainize hard-working rank-and-file officers.
In addition to ending the consent decrees, the Justice Department also announced it was closing pending Federal investigations in four other jurisdictions.
“The FOP supports community policing and problem solving in the community,” Yoes said. “Federal intervention through consent decrees does not improve public safety, quality of life for residents, or the morale of the men and women whose lives are on the line every day. We need a Federal partner, not Federal monitors, if we are to improve policing in our communities. President Trump’s choice of Pam Bondi as his Attorney General gives us that partner.”