WASHINGTON — The Justice Department took steps Wednesday to revise policing practices in Washington, DC and Springfield, Mass. B. how and when to use force as President Biden works to fulfill his campaign pledge to curb police abuse.
The department said it reached a settlement with the city of Springfield, Mass., after an investigation by its police department’s Narcotics Bureau found a pattern of excessive violence. Under this agreement, known as the Consent Decree, the Springfield Police Department will enhance policies and training to ensure officers avoid the use of force whenever possible.
In a separate legal filing, the Justice Department said the U.S. Park Police and the Secret Service had changed their policies regarding policing demonstrations, closing a case civil rights groups had filed against the Trump administration. The groups accused officials of abusing their power by violently dispersing protesters who had gathered outside the White House two years ago.
The Biden administration is struggling to make meaningful progress on a vow to curb police abuse. A bipartisan attempt to pass a national police overhaul fell through in Congress last year, and the White House is still working on drafting an executive order on police reform after police groups complained that their views were not included in an early version of the document be .
Efforts to overhaul law enforcement are particularly thorny as police departments suffer from thinning ranks and mounting workloads, and as crime levels rise in cities across the country.
The consent decree in Springfield, the first under the Biden administration since Attorney General Merrick B. Garland overturned a Trump administration policy to curb its use, has yet to be approved by a federal judge.
The Justice Department began investigating Springfield police under the Trump administration. In a statement Wednesday, Kristen Clarke, the chief of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said the division had identified systemic problems that had led to excessive use of force by Narcotics Bureau officers. Those problems, she said, arose from deficiencies in policies, training and accountability mechanisms.
“The pattern or practice of unlawful conduct has undermined public confidence,” Ms Clarke said. “It has undermined the police’s ability to fight crime.”
The Biden administration has so far opened four other similar investigations in Louisville, Kentucky; Minneapolis; Phoenix; and Mount Vernon, NY. The administration also enforces 11 consent edicts.
The agreement with park police and Secret Service is part of a settlement emerging from multiple lawsuits civil rights groups have filed against former President Donald J. Trump. his last Attorney General, William P. Barr; and officers from other federal agencies as well as local police.
In June 2020, protesters gathered in Lafayette Park in front of the White House to denounce police violence in the days after George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, was killed by a police officer. Law enforcement officers, including park police and Secret Service, and National Guard troops poured into the park to clear the way for Mr. Trump to cross, with mounted police and riot police using tear gas, other military-style weapons, and force. Some officers were accused of covering up their badges and other identifying marks.
Park Police have now agreed that all officers must wear prominently displayed identification on their uniform. It can no longer revoke demonstration permits where there is no risk to public safety or breaking the law, and officials must let protesters safely go when told to disperse.
For its part, the intelligence agency must make it clear in its policy that the use of force and the dispersal of protesters are generally not justified simply because some individuals in a crowd of protesters are behaving unlawfully.
The changes “will strengthen our commitment to protecting and respecting constitutionally protected rights,” Vanita Gupta, the assistant attorney general, said in a statement.
Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based police think tank, welcomed the changes.
“When I think back to that day at Lafayette Park, so many things went wrong,” he said. “It is important that the Justice Department came to these conclusions.”