Headline Roundup • May 22nd, 2025
Trump Admin Announces Rollback of Biden-era Police Reforms
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The Trump administration announced plans to roll back police reform measures implemented during the Biden administration in cities that have faced high-profile police killings and brutality.
The Details: The Justice Department (DOJ) has criticized the Biden administration for enacting "sweeping" oversight agreements that would have led to years of micromanagement of local police by federal courts. The Trump administration argues that these agreements handcuff local departments and are based on "flawed methodologies and incomplete data". This decision will also lead to the dismissal of two lawsuits filed against police in Louisville and Minneapolis that accuse law enforcement of unconstitutional police practices.
Key Quote: “Overbroad police consent decrees divest local control of policing from communities where it belongs, turning that power over to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, often with an anti-police agenda,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a statement. “Today, we are ending the Biden Civil Rights Division’s failed experiment of handcuffing local leaders and police departments with factually unjustified consent decrees.”
For Context: The Biden-era DOJ, led by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, had opened civil investigations into 12 state and local law enforcement agencies. These investigations followed high-profile cases of police killings of black Americans, leading to accusations of systemic racism against law enforcement agencies nationwide. The agreements included measures such as enhanced training, accountability, and improved data collection of police activity. The mayors of Louisville and Minneapolis both said they would move forward with reform plans, despite the likely dismissal of the agreements.
How The Media Covered It: The Guardian (Left bias) framed the move as a "rapid change" in the DOJ's civil rights division under Trump, dismantling Biden-era work and undermining diversity efforts. It also highlighted right-wing pressure to "recast George Floyd’s murder" and define liberal-run cities like Minneapolis as crime-ridden. Just the News (Lean Right) focused on the dismissal of lawsuits in Kentucky and Minnesota and the closing of investigations in six other cities. It also quoted Congressman Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ), who had advocated for an end to the investigation of the Phoenix Police Department and had sought to "undo the damage wrought by the Biden Administration.”
Revised by the AllSides staff (of humans) after a first draft from our custom AI. Learn more. Suggest an improvement to this summary.
Featured Coverage of this Story
Getty Images
The Trump administration said it will roll back Biden-era police reform efforts in cities where there has been controversy over high-profile police killings and brutality.
The US justice department said on Wednesday it will be dismissing oversight agreements reached with the police departments in Louisville, Kentucky and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
It will also be scrapping investigations into police constitutional violations in six other cities, including Phoenix and Memphis.
The announcement comes just days before the fifth anniversary of the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in 2020 after...
The justice department moved on Wednesday to cancel a settlement with Minneapolis that called for an overhaul of its police department following the murder of George Floyd, as well as a similar agreement with Louisville, Kentucky, after the death of Breonna Taylor, saying it does not want to pursue the cases.
The move shows how the civil rights division of the justice department is changing rapidly under Donald Trump, dismantling Biden-era work and investigating diversity programs. It also comes amid pressure on the right to recast Floyd’s murder, undermine diversity efforts and define...
The Justice Department announced Wednesday that it has ended investigations into two police departments over questionable practies, in addition to reform agreements and lawsuits.
The department's Civil Rights Division said it is dismissing lawsuits against the police departments of Louisville, Ky., and Minneapolis, which the Biden administration filed after President Trump's election victory.
The lawsuits sought to subject the police departments to consent decrees after accusing them "of widespread patterns of unconstitutional policing practices by wrongly equating statistical disparities with intentional discrimination and heavily relying on flawed methodologies and incomplete data."
...
