US Justice Department Ramps Up Investigations of Police

WASHINGTON - In the wake of George Floyd's death last May beneath the knee of then-police officer Derek Chauvin, Black Lives Matter protesters demanded that the Justice Department investigate the Minneapolis police department for civil rights violations.   

Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department investigated two dozen police agencies for evidence of misconduct and gross violations of Black Americans' rights, eventually entering into court-approved agreements with 14 of them to try to correct the problems.        But once Republican Donald Trump succeeded Democrat Barack Obama, the Justice Department stopped investigating police, with Trump's first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, saying such investigations would amount to governmental overreach and demoralize law enforcement.        Now, with Democrat Joe Biden — Obama's former vice president and a onetime Senate Judiciary Committee chairman — in the White House, the Department of Justice, to the cheers of many in civil rights circles, is reversing course again.