What is a consent decision?

The Justice Department and Minneapolis officials said Friday they had agreed to negotiate a deal for the overhaul of the precinct that could be enforced by a court.

Such agreements are known as “decrees of consent,” and typically a federal judge, along with an independent observer, is appointed to oversee the changes and ensure they are implemented.

Consent decrees can take years, as 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 came out of a consent decree in 2016 after 13 years.

In a 2021 memo outlining the principles of consent decrees, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said consent decrees ensure that agencies are reviewed independently and that the agreement can be enforced immediately if terms are violated.

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

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

Enabling decrees that allow the Justice Department to oversee and resolve issues surrounding unconstitutional policing were introduced in 1994, when Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.

The use of consent decrees by the federal government depended on who is in charge of the executive branch. Under President Barack Obama, the Justice Department regularly issued and deposited consent decrees with 14 departments across the country as his administration attempted to address 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 lifted those restrictions. Currently, there are several consent decrees in place with police departments across the country, including those in Baltimore and Cleveland.