Protect and observe
The DOJ should not back off monitoring police
With tension between police and residents running high in some parts of the country, the U.S. Department of Justice should embrace its authority to monitor local law enforcement and step in when patterns involving excessive force, false arrests and other problems emerge.
It’s important work, but Attorney General Jeff Sessions may want to give it up. He’s told his assistants to review the department’s so-called consent decrees that require that various cities’ police departments commit to plans of improvement and correction. “It is not the responsibility of the federal government to manage non-federal law enforcement agencies,” Mr. Sessions said.
Yes, it is. Mr. Sessions’ failure to appreciate this is disappointing but not surprising. Before becoming attorney general, he was the junior U.S. senator from Alabama and the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, a state with a reputation for police and prosecutorial misconduct and for resisting civil rights lawyers’ efforts to overturn wrongful convictions.
To be sure, the vast majority of police officers nationwide serve and protect with honor. An effective police force is essential for a civilized society, and officers put their lives on the line every day. But some police departments, feeling maligned by the Black Lives Matter movement and criticism of officer-involved fatal shootings, were happy to hear of Mr. Sessions’ backtracking on federal monitoring. They shouldn’t be. Consent decrees provide training and tools that help officers do their jobs more safely and professionally. They can help to ensure that departments won’t police to the minimum because of frustration or wariness over Black Lives Matter activism or other criticism.
Federal oversight existed long before Black Lives Matter came on the scene, and Pittsburgh is among the cities that have benefited from it. In 1997, city police were placed under a consent decree for problems ranging from excessive force and false arrests to illegal searches and lax officer discipline. Citing federal law, the attorney general’s office said at the time, it had the authority to intervene.
The city was released from oversight in 2002, and a federal study later lauded Pittsburgh’s experience. “Can a reform process imposed on a local jurisdiction by a federal court succeed? And if so, could that process continue after the federal court withdrew?” the report asked. “The simple answer to both questions is ‘yes.’ It is clear that the requirements of the consent decree dramatically changed the culture of the Bureau of Police.”
In Baltimore, where federal oversight is awaiting a judge’s approval, Mayor Catherine E. Pugh wants to move forward. It’s an important step following the uproar over the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, who sustained spinal cord injuries in a police van. Mr. Sessions should use the power of his office to boost policing in Baltimore and other cities that need the help.