A years-long effort to bring federal oversight of policing reform to Louisville ended Wednesday with a judge tossing out a proposed consent decree.
City leaders signed the reform plan late in December 2024 in the waning days of President Joe Biden’s administration. The proposed consent decree outlined dozens of changes to policy and training that were meant to address the unconstitutional policing practices the U.S. Department of Justice identified in its two-year-long investigation. But under President Donald Trump, the DOJ has taken a different tack on consent decrees, arguing they unnecessarily hamstring officers and make cities less safe.
U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Beaton, a Trump appointee, granted the government’s motion to dismiss on Wednesday after months of silence. In his order, Beaton wrote that he felt he had no basis to approve the consent decree after DOJ officials, then under President Joe Biden, refused to share additional data they collected about how LMPD allegedly violated the civil rights of residents, protesters and people with disabilities.
“Given the parties’ failure to connect the Consent Decree to specific factual allegations about historical and ongoing violations of specific legal rules, the Court lacked a basis to order such sweeping reforms,” he concluded.
In his order, Beaton expressed the same skepticism of federal and judicial oversight of local police departments as he did during the first hearing in the case. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg chose not to oppose the administration’s motion to dismiss last May, saying “the writing was on the wall,” and instead remained neutral on the issue. Attorneys representing the city had argued that a DOJ uninterested in enforcing a reform plan would not be workable.
After news broke of the DOJ’s intention to back out of the consent decree, Greenberg and Louisville Metro Police Chief Paul Humphrey released their own plan, dubbed “Community Commitment.” It includes many of the same reforms that were in the original consent decree.
In response to an email from LPM News, Greenberg’s spokesperson Matt Mudd said the administration is still committed to police reform without the consent decree.
“Even though the federal government abandoned its promise to help implement police reform in Louisville, Mayor Greenberg did something no mayor in the country has done – he voluntarily created and implemented the Community Commitment – Louisville’s Consent Decree,” Mudd said in a statement.
City officials anticipate the sweeping changes will take years to implement.
Louisville Metro hired the consulting firm Effective Law Enforcement for All in September who will send a monitoring team to the city, acting as an independent check to make sure the police department implements the reform.
The monitors will file regular reports to the new Community Safety Commission. The 22-member body, made up of residents, anti-gun violence activists and police reform proponents, will provide feedback on the changes.
The DOJ’s lawsuit against Louisville Metro was dismissed Wednesday with prejudice, meaning a future president will not be able to revive the effort to bring the city’s police department under federal oversight.
