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PartialCriminal Justice, Policing & Public Safety

Expand and use the power of the U.S. Justice Department to address systemic misconduct in police departments and prosecutors' offices.

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PartialFact-checker reviewConfidence: 85%

Biden's Justice Department used its pattern-or-practice authority extensively against police departments: it rescinded a Trump-era memo restricting consent decrees (April 2021), opened investigations including Minneapolis (April 21, 2021), Louisville, Phoenix and Memphis, issued formal findings of unconstitutional practices, and reached consent-decree agreements with Louisville (December 2024) and Minneapolis (approved Jan. 6, 2025) before the term ended. The promise's second element - prosecutors' offices - saw no comparable DOJ action, and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would have expanded DOJ tools, passed the House but stalled in the Senate in 2021. Substantial delivery on police departments with no action on prosecutors' offices supports partial credit; the successor administration's dismissal of the decrees after Jan. 20, 2025 does not affect this completed-term assessment.

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