Latest news with #police reform
Times
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Times
Met chief calls for regional mega-forces in radical police overhaul
The country's most senior police officer has called for the number of forces in England and Wales to be slashed by two thirds and urged the government to conduct the most radical overhaul of crime fighting in 60 years. Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, said the model of 43 county-based forces has not 'been fit for purpose for at least two decades' and suggested they should be replaced by 12 to 15 regional mega-forces. Writing for The Sunday Times, Rowley said these 'bigger and fully capable' forces would be able to make better use of modern technology and the 'limited funding available'. There would also be less replication of back office services, such as human resources departments. • Sir Mark Rowley: police exist to protect the public, we are not social workers The regional forces would be supported by a new national policing body responsible for 'key capabilities', such as police helicopters and intelligence. Rowley said that chief constables were now 'united' on the urgent need for reform, adding that the home secretary Yvette Cooper shared a 'commitment to reform'. It is Rowley's first major intervention since Rachel Reeves's spending review last month, the run up to which was dominated by a public row between the chancellor and police and security chiefs over cuts to law enforcement. While Reeves announced a 2.3 per cent annual increase in funding, chief constables argued it would not plug the gaps, which have been compounded by a £300 million additional cost resulting from the government's early release scheme for prisoners. Rowley describes the cash settlement as 'disappointing' and argues that while the Met was making progress tackling a number of offences, its budget would need to 'increase by 50 per cent to match policing spend per capita in New York or Sydney'. He also warned that Sir Keir Starmer's key crime targets may not be met unless the government removes 'the distractions and bureaucracy that diverts' the police 'away from crime fighting'. Starmer has pledged an additional 13,000 police officers, as well as halving knife offences and violence against women and girls in a decade. In a direct appeal to ministers, the commissioner said: 'Recruits join the police to protect the public — but too often officers effectively take on the role of social workers. Police chiefs are trying to correct this, but we need the government and public sector to help us.' He highlighted the impact on the Met and other forces of children and adolescents regularly going missing from care homes, which he said drew 'heavily on police time'. Last year alone, there were 80,000 reported incidents nationally of missing vulnerable children, who are often 'exploited by gangs and lured into crime', he said. He continued: 'Not only does this absorb thousands of officer hours, it cannot be right — financially or morally — that often the only place for vulnerable children to be held in moments of crisis is a police building.' The problem has previously been highlighted by Festus Akinbusoye, the former police and crime commissioner for Bedfordshire. He said in 2023 that force control rooms were receiving a 'deluge' of so-called 'concern for welfare' referrals from social workers every Friday evening about children who have gone missing from local authority care. Akinbusoye, who had volunteered as a special constable prior to his election as a PCC, recalled how social services were regularly sending their caseloads of missing children to the police at the start of the weekend, with officers having 'no choice but to go and find them'. Rowley has also railed against the amount of time his officers spend responding to emergency call-outs involving mental health incidents. In June 2023, he said they would no longer do so unless there was an immediate threat to life. Ahead of the new football season, he also said it was 'particularly astounding that the Met is still being asked to pick up 80 per cent of the £24 million annual cost of policing football matches in London, including the Premier League's'. There are seven Premier League clubs in the capital, with Rowley citing the fact some could 'splurge over £100 million on a single player and pay them a weekly wage equivalent to more than 600 constables'. Clubs only pay towards the cost of officers who enter their grounds. But the Met has to fund hundreds of other police who patrol the streets and transport hubs on match days, diverting them from other frontline duties. His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary suggested 20 years ago that the number of forces in England and Wales should be drastically streamlined. The proposal failed to get off the ground due, in part, to resistance from local police chiefs. Reform would probably mean some of the smaller rural forces, such as Warwickshire, being subsumed by the largest force in a region, such as West Midlands police. Some smaller constabularies already share resources. For example, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire have a tri-force arrangement for major incidents, armed policing and forensics.
The Guardian
21-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
DoJ moves to cancel police reform settlements with Minneapolis and Louisville
The justice department moved on Wednesday to cancel a settlement with Minneapolis that called for an overhaul of its police department following the murder of George Floyd, as well as a similar agreement with Louisville, Kentucky, after the death of Breonna Taylor, saying it does not want to pursue the cases. The move shows how the civil rights division of the justice department is changing rapidly under Donald Trump, dismantling Biden-era work and investigating diversity programs. It also comes amid pressure on the right to recast Floyd's murder, undermine diversity efforts and define liberal-run cities like Minneapolis as crime-ridden. Following a scathing report by the justice department in 2023, Minneapolis in January approved a consent decree with the federal government in the final days of the Biden administration to overhaul its training and use-of-force policies under court supervision. The agreement required approval from a federal court in Minnesota. But the Trump administration was granted a delay soon after taking office while it considered its options, and on Wednesday told the court it does not intend to proceed. It planned to file a similar motion in federal court in Kentucky. 'After an extensive review by current Department of Justice and Civil Rights Division leadership, the United States no longer believes that the proposed consent decree would be in the public interest,' said the Minnesota motion, signed by Andrew Darlington, acting chief of the special litigation section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. 'The United States will no longer prosecute this matter.' Trump has generally opposed the use of consent decrees, through which the government has threatened lawsuits against police forces and then entered into reform agreements. Harmeet Dhillon, the Trump ally who oversees the now-gutted civil rights division of the justice department, said in a statement that 'overbroad police consent decrees divest local control of policing from communities where it belongs, turning that power over to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, often with an anti-police agenda.' The department said it would also be ending investigations or retracting findings of constitutional violations into police departments in Phoenix, Arizona; Trenton, New Jersey; Memphis, Tennessee; Mount Vernon, New York; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and the Louisiana state police. The justice department announced its decision just before the five-year anniversary of the murder of Floyd, a Black man. Then officer Derek Chauvin, a white man, used his knee on 25 May 2020, to pin Floyd to the pavement for 9.5 minutes in a case that sparked protests around the world and a national reckoning with racism and police brutality. In Louisville, the consent degree came after Breonna Taylor, a Black woman, was killed by police when they forced their way into her apartment in 2020. Similar to Floyd, Taylor's death sparked protests. The decree had not yet been approved by a judge. However, no immediate changes are expected to affect the Minneapolis police department, which is operating under a similar consent decree with the Minnesota human rights epartment. It also comes as rightwing figures have pushed for a pardon for Chauvin, who was convicted of state and federal charges. Democratic governor Tim Walz said last week that the state should be prepared for a federal pardon from Trump, but that he had no indication one was forthcoming. 'If Donald Trump exercises his constitutional right to do so, whether I agree – and I strongly disagree with him – if he issues that pardon we will simply transfer Derek Chauvin to serve out his 22-and-a-half years in prison in Minnesota,' Walz said, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. 'So, no indication whether they're going to do it or not, but I think it behooves us to be prepared for it. With this presidency, it seems like that might be something they would do.' Minneapolis police chief Brian O'Hara reiterated at a news conference on Tuesday that his department would abide by the terms of the federal agreement as it was signed, regardless of what the Trump administration decided. The city in 2023 reached a settlement agreement with the state human rights department to remake policing, under court supervision, after the agency issued a blistering report in 2022 that found that police had long engaged in a pattern of racial discrimination. 'We will implement every reform outlined in the consent decree,' Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement. Louisville mayor Craig Greenberg said on X that the city would move forward with its own reform plan, despite the likely dismissal of the proposed decree. The city will take community input and select an independent monitor, putting in place accountability and transparency measures to rebuild trust in public safety, Greenberg said. 'I made a promise to our community, and we are keeping that promise with this agreement,' he continued. Associated Press contributed reporting
Globe and Mail
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
U.S. abandons police reform accords sought over deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor
The U.S. Justice Department is abandoning efforts to secure court-approved settlements with Minneapolis and Louisville, despite its prior finding that police in both cities routinely violated the civil rights of Black people, a senior official said on Wednesday. Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the department's Civil Rights Division, said her office will seek to dismiss the pending litigation against the two cities and retract the department's prior findings of constitutional violations. 'Overbroad police consent decrees divest local control of policing from communities where it belongs, turning that power over to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, often with an anti-police agenda,' Dhillon said in a statement. She also announced that the department will be closing out investigations and retracting prior findings of wrongdoing against the police departments in Phoenix, Arizona, Memphis, Tennessee, Trenton, New Jersey, Mount Vernon, New York, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and the Louisiana State Police. The move comes four days before the May 25 five-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a white police officer who knelt on his neck as Floyd repeatedly pleaded that he couldn't breathe. Floyd's killing, as well as the killing of Breonna Taylor who was shot to death by Louisville Police executing a no-knock warrant, sparked worldwide protests about racially-motivated policing practices during the final year of President Donald Trump's first term in office. Louisville and Minneapolis were the two most high-profile cities to be investigated during former Democratic President Joe Biden's administration for systemic police abuse, and were the only two cities that agreed in principle to enter into a court-approved settlement with the DOJ known as a consent decree. Minneapolis also separately entered a similar type of settlement with the state of Minnesota to reform its police practices. Congress authorized the Justice Department to conduct civil investigations into constitutional abuses by police, such as excessive use of force or racially-motivated policing, in 1994, as a response to the beating of Rodney King, a Black man, by white Los Angeles police officers. During Biden's presidency, the Civil Rights Division launched 12 such 'pattern or practice' investigations into police departments including Phoenix, New York City, Trenton, Memphis and Lexington, Mississippi. But during those four years it failed to enter into any court-binding consent decrees, an issue that legal experts warned could put the department's police accountability work at risk of being undone. Under Dhillon's leadership, the Civil Rights Division has lost more than 100 of its attorneys through deferred resignation agreements, demotions and resignations. 'Over 100 attorneys decided that they'd rather not do what their job requires them to do, and I think that's fine,' Dhillon told Glenn Beck on his podcast on April 26. Last month, Dhillon demoted senior attorneys who handled police abuse investigations to other low-level assignments, such as handling public records requests or adjudicating internal discrimination complaints. Those moves are part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to upend the Civil Rights Division's traditions of pursuing cases to protect the civil rights of some of the country's most vulnerable and historically disenfranchised populations. Since January, it has paused probes of alleged police abuse, launched its first investigation into whether Los Angeles violated gun rights laws, and following Trump's lead, changed the department's stance on transgender rights and probed alleged antisemitism at U.S. colleges involving pro-Palestinian protesters. The department also recently ended a decades-old school desegregation order in Louisiana that came about in the wake of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education case.
Washington Post
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Justice Department moves to cancel police reform settlements reached with Minneapolis and Louisville
MINNEAPOLIS — The Justice Department moved Wednesday to cancel a settlement with Minneapolis that called for an overhaul of its police department following the murder of George Floyd, as well as a similar agreement with Louisville, Kentucky, saying it doesn't want to pursue the cases. Following a scathing report by the Justice Department in 2023, Minneapolis in January approved a consent decree with the federal government in the final days of the Biden administration to overhaul its training and use-of-force policies under court supervision. The agreement required approval from a federal court in Minnesota. But the Trump administration was granted a delay soon after taking office while it considered its options, and on Wednesday told the court it does not intend to proceed. It planned to file a similar motion in federal court in Kentucky. 'After an extensive review by current Department of Justice and Civil Rights Division leadership, the United States no longer believes that the proposed consent decree would be in the public interest,' said the Minnesota motion, signed by Andrew Darlington, acting chief of the special litigation section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. 'The United States will no longer prosecute this matter.' The Justice Department announced its decision just before the five-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. Then-officer Derek Chauvin used his knee on May 25, 2020, to pin the Black man to the pavement for 9 1/2 minutes in a case that sparked protests around the world and a national reckoning with racism and police brutality. However, no immediate changes are expected to affect the Minneapolis Police Department, which is operating under a similar consent decree with the Minnesota Human Rights Department. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara reiterated at a news conference Tuesday that his department would abide by the terms of the federal agreement as it was signed, regardless of what the Trump administration decided. The city in 2023 reached a settlement agreement with the state Human Rights Department to remake policing, under court supervision, after the agency issued a blistering report in 2022 that found that police had long engaged in a pattern of racial discrimination.
Associated Press
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Justice Department moves to cancel police reform settlements reached with Minneapolis and Louisville
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Justice Department moved Wednesday to cancel a settlement with Minneapolis that called for an overhaul of its police department following the murder of George Floyd, as well as a similar agreement with Louisville, Kentucky, saying it doesn't want to pursue the cases. Following a scathing report by the Justice Department in 2023, Minneapolis in January approved a consent decree with the federal government in the final days of the Biden administration to overhaul its training and use-of-force policies under court supervision. The agreement required approval from a federal court in Minnesota. But the Trump administration was granted a delay soon after taking office while it considered its options, and on Wednesday told the court it does not intend to proceed. It planned to file a similar motion in federal court in Kentucky. 'After an extensive review by current Department of Justice and Civil Rights Division leadership, the United States no longer believes that the proposed consent decree would be in the public interest,' said the Minnesota motion, signed by Andrew Darlington, acting chief of the special litigation section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. 'The United States will no longer prosecute this matter.' The Justice Department announced its decision just before the five-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. Then-officer Derek Chauvin used his knee on May 25, 2020, to pin the Black man to the pavement for 9 1/2 minutes in a case that sparked protests around the world and a national reckoning with racism and police brutality. However, no immediate changes are expected to affect the Minneapolis Police Department, which is operating under a similar consent decree with the Minnesota Human Rights Department. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara reiterated at a news conference Tuesday that his department would abide by the terms of the federal agreement as it was signed, regardless of what the Trump administration decided. The city in 2023 reached a settlement agreement with the state Human Rights Department to remake policing, under court supervision, after the agency issued a blistering report in 2022 that found that police had long engaged in a pattern of racial discrimination.
