Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered Justice Department officials to review consent decrees with the agencies they are on, saying it was necessary to ensure these pacts do not work against the Trump administration’s goals of promoting officer safety and morale while fighting violent crime.
In a two-page memo released Monday, Sessions said agreements reached previously between the department’s civil rights division and local police departments will be subject to review by his two top deputies, throwing into question whether all of the agreements will stay in place.
The memo was released not long before the department’s civil rights lawyers asked a federal judge to postpone a hearing on a consent decree with the Baltimore Police Department that was announced just days before President Trump took office.
