Sessions is also calling for the deputy attorney general and associate attorney general to review all dealings with local law enforcement, including existing civil rights reform agreements, consent decrees, with police.
On Tuesday, Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said he has already implemented some reforms outlined in a proposed agreement with the federal government, including updating the department's use-of-force policy, outfitting officers with body-worn cameras and doubling the hours of mandatory training. It could also seek to renegotiate the terms of a decree or to have it dropped altogether-though that would be hard even with the cooperation of a police department, Smith said. Sessions wants the Justice Department to review all the President Barack Obama-era consent decrees.
But after the Justice Department signaled it may abandon its efforts to help that reform, city officials fear they will be left with little money or political backing to fix the fractured relationship between police and citizens.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed his agency to inspect a wide range of measures related to law enforcement departments nationwide to ensure, among other things, that the federal government isn't meddling in the management of local police. But without the pressure to comply with a consent decree will that be enough? It was hammered out after days of street protests followed the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager in 2014. So we believe that we negotiated a fair consent decree and one that will improve the relationships with the police department and the community.
During the Obama administration, the Justice Department launched more than two dozen investigations into local law enforcement agencies accused of misconduct.
Baraka said he anxious Sessions would erode gains to restore relationships between police departments and their communities.
Given the tone Sessions and Trump have set, Smith thinks state attorneys general will now be crucial to ensuring police accountability and should exercise more oversight over their local police departments.
"The Department is working to ensure that those initiatives effectively dovetail with robust enforcement of federal laws created to preserve and protect civil rights", Prior said.
He said the shift by Sessions probably won't derail that momentum. Leaders say they plan to reflect on King's legacy by pushing for civil right reforms. In January, the city and the Justice Department announced that they'd reached an agreement to overhaul the police department.
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They swiftly voiced their opposition to the requested delay, and pledged to press ahead with the business of transforming the police department, with or without a court-enforceable consent decree.
The DOJ's request is "untimely" and "inappropriate", said U.S. District Court Judge James K. Bredar in a motion filed today.
The move alarmed civil rights and police reform advocates.
Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh opposes the request for an extension, she said in a statement.
JEFF SESSIONS: It's very clear what the role is, and that is that any serious allegation of excessive force is subject to a federal investigation. In each, the Justice Department found evidence of a "pattern or practice" of biased policing on a wider scale than any individual officer.
Negotiations on a potential agreement between Chicago and the Justice Department have been in the works.
"The mayor's committed to seeing this through, and that's what's going to happen", said Greg White, Cleveland's Consent Decree Implementation Coordinator.
If Sessions has the DOJ back off of such investigations, would it be detrimental to police relations?
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