What is a consent decree?

The Justice Department and Minneapolis officials have agreed to negotiate toward a deal on a court-enforced consent decree. A consent decree in this case, between the Department of Justice and a state or local governmental agency, such as a police department, is a court-approved agreement that creates and enforces a road map for changes and overhaul within the agency where the Justice Department has found evidence of abuse and misconduct.Typically, a federal judge, along with an independent monitor, is appointed to oversee the changes and enforce the agreement.

Consent decrees can last for years, since federal oversight is removed only when the judge has determined that the department has met the goals and made the changes outlined in the agreement. The Los Angeles Police Department, for example, was under a consent decree for 11 years, until it was deemed fully compliant in 2013. The Detroit Police Department emerged from a consent decree in 2016 after 13 years.

In a 2021 memo outlining principles of consent decrees, Merrick B. Garland, the attorney general, said that consent decrees ensure that agencies will be under an independent review and that the agreement can be promptly enforced if its terms are broken.

Mr. Garland added in the memo that these agreements have been used to “secure equal opportunity in education, protect the environment, ensure constitutional policing practices, defend the free exercise of religion, eliminate discriminatory housing practices, redress sexual harassment” and more.

In some cases, when the Justice Department has not found sufficient evidence to charge specific individual officers in civil rights investigations, a consent decree has been used to address systemic and underlying issues in the department.

Consent decrees allowing the Department of Justice to oversee and resolve issues around unconstitutional policing were introduced in 1994, when Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.

The federal government’s use of consent decrees has depended on who is in charge of the executive branch. Under President Barack Obama, the Justice Department issued consent decrees frequently, filing them with 14 departments around the country, as his administration attempted to tackle allegations of police misconduct.

During the Trump administration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions limited the use of consent decrees to address police misconduct, arguing that the agreements “reduce morale” among police officers and lead to more violent crime.

But, in 2021, Mr. Garland rescinded those limitations. Currently, there are several consent decrees with police departments around the country, including those in Baltimore and Cleveland.