Sessions Parting Shot

The Attorney General tosses one final wrench on the all-too-frequently abused Consent Decree law:

• Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in one of his final acts as the nation’s top cop, curtailed the ability of law enforcement officials to use court-enforced agreements to create change within local police departments accused of civil rights violations.
  
  Consent decrees are often used to enforce an agreement between the Justice Department and a local police department to address a violation of law. They were used more frequently under the Obama administration to resolve civil rights violations by police departments and more broadly modify police practices across the country.
  
  The memorandum, which Sessions signed shortly before President Trump effectively fired him, “provides guidance on the limited circumstances in which such a consent decree may be appropriate” and “limits the terms for consent decrees and settlement agreements with state and local governmental entities, including terms requiring the use of monitors; and amends the process for the approval of these mechanisms in cases in which they are permissible.”

The on-tap Consent Decree is slated to cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars - hundreds of millions that the City doesn't have and has no intention of spending, not least of all on improving the police department. We're beginning to think much of this "Decree" won't ever be implemented (by either side) and is merely being used as theater.