What Jeff Sessions’s final act in office means for policing in America

On his way out the door after being fired by President Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions did one last thing to seal his legacy at the Justice Department: he issued a memo. His primary target? Consent decrees, which aim to bring oversight to local police departments with historical patterns of discriminatory policing and improper use of force. The memo outlined policies that would make it far more difficult for the federal government to use these decrees.

Such a move by Sessions should not be a surprise. He opposed consent decrees from the beginning of his tenure as attorney general. He has long opposed federal oversight of local law enforcement, claiming consent decrees violate local sovereignty, undermine police morale, increase crime and unfairly punish entire departments for the actions of an individual officer. Sessions found consent decrees so abhorrent that he ordered reviews of existing agreements that the Obama administration made with police departments in Baltimore, Chicago and Ferguson.

Read Full Article (via Washington Post)

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