More than 20 cities that have been under a federal consent decree are now seeing accountability measures roll back, according to reports. These legal agreements, created to force changes within police departments after findings of civil rights violations, are being dismantled. 

Among the affected cities is Louisville, where Breonna Taylor was killed by police in 2020 during a no-knock raid. The incident, which drew global attention, led to a Justice Department investigation that concluded Louisville police had “engaged in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law,” including excessive force and discriminatory policing against Black residents.

Louisville officials had pledged to adopt reforms and negotiated a consent decree which is still awaiting judicial approval. But the Justice Department recently announced it was halting that agreement, and others, calling them “factually unjustified.”

“Today, we are ending the Biden Civil Rights Division’s failed experiment of handcuffing local leaders and police departments with factually unjustified consent decrees,” said Harmeet K Dhillon, the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, in an announcement.

Communities like Trenton, New Jersey — where police were investigated after an unarmed Black man was shot and paralyzed in a traffic stop — are also affected. Local NAACP president Austin Edward said the federal oversight had offered “a glimmer” of hope: 

“For the first time, having the federal government actually come in and say: ‘Something is going wrong here in Trenton,’ and finally listening to what the people have been saying for a long time? That’s where that hope lies,” he said to The Guardian. “A lot of people are very disappointed with the fact that we don’t have any other recourse at the moment.”

Advocacy organizations are now rallying around efforts like the People’s Consent Decree in Louisville — a locally driven plan for accountability created by community groups. Advocates hope to raise public awareness and eventually implement the measure citywide.