Justice Department:

NAACP is wary of a weaker devotion to civil rights enforcement.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been on the job less than a month but has already made some civil rights groups nervous by indicating the Justice Department will probably soften its focus on protecting voter rights and monitoring troubled police departments.

The head of the NAACP met with Sessions Friday at the attorney general’s request. The private meeting was held the same week Sessions suggested the Justice Department would back away from federal investigations of local police departments. The agency this week also abandoned an Obamaera challenge to a key aspect of Texas’ voter ID law, which is among the toughest in the nation.

“He said we would agree on some things and disagree on others, and he was committed to enforcing civil rights law as he sees it,” said NAACP President Cornell William Brooks.

Sessions has moved swiftly to set the Justice Department on a strikingly different path from his Democratic-appointed predecessors.

Civil rights investigations of police departments, for example, were a staple at the Justice Department under former President Barack Obama in a bid to overhaul troubled law enforcement agencies after racially charged encounters.

But Sessions said he believes that kind of intense federal scrutiny could hinder officers’ ability to aggressively fight crime. Brooks said the attorney general reiterated concern that a lack of respect for police has hurt officer morale and led to a spike in crime.

Also Friday, Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said Sessions plans Monday to provide amended testimony regarding his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. during the presidential election.