Trump Administration DOJ Says Investigations Were Based on Flawed Data and Overreach
Washington, D.C. — May 21, 2025
- DOJ’s Civil Rights Division is dismissing lawsuits and investigations into multiple police departments.
- Consent decrees against Louisville and Minneapolis are being withdrawn as legally and factually unfounded.
- Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon criticized prior federal oversight as bureaucratic overreach.
- Investigations into six additional departments—including Memphis and Phoenix—are also being closed.
In a sweeping policy reversal, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced on Wednesday that it will dismiss lawsuits and investigations launched during the final months of the Biden administration against several local police departments. The move ends proposed federal consent decrees over the Louisville and Minneapolis police departments, which the DOJ now says lacked factual and legal merit.
These lawsuits, filed shortly after President Trump’s reelection, had accused the two departments of engaging in unconstitutional policing practices. However, according to the official statement from the DOJ, the allegations were based on flawed methodologies, incomplete data, and erroneous interpretations of statistical disparities as evidence of intentional discrimination.
— Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon
The sweeping consent decrees had proposed strict federal oversight over multiple aspects of law enforcement, including officer training, supervision, discipline, hiring, and use-of-force policies. DOJ officials said the decrees would have imposed “years of micromanagement” by federal monitors, costing local governments hundreds of millions of dollars.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon denounced the Biden-era approach, calling it a “failed experiment” that unfairly targeted local police departments while undermining public trust and operational independence. She affirmed that the Department will instead focus on offering technical assistance and funding to departments in good standing.
Alongside dismissals in Louisville and Minneapolis, the DOJ is also closing investigations and retracting previous findings of constitutional violations in six other jurisdictions: Phoenix (AZ), Trenton (NJ), Memphis (TN), Mount Vernon (NY), Oklahoma City (OK), and the Louisiana State Police.
According to the DOJ, the decision does not imply tolerance for misconduct but rather a commitment to ensuring that any federal intervention is legally justified. Officials reaffirmed that the Department remains prepared to pursue criminal charges in instances of verified civil rights violations by law enforcement.
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