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Press Release
Press Release
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Today, at the International Association of Chiefs of Police annual meeting, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced the results of Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta’s review of the use of monitors in civil settlement agreements and consent decrees with state and local governmental entities. In a memo to the Attorney General, the Associate recommended 19 separate actions that the department should take to improve its use of monitors in these cases. The Attorney General has accepted the Associate’s recommendations and ordered them to be made effective immediately.
“The department has found that – while consent decrees and monitorships are important tools to increase transparency and accountability – the department can and should do more to improve their efficiency and efficacy,” said Attorney General Garland. “The Associate Attorney General has recommended – and I have accepted – a set of 19 actions that the department will take to address those concerns.”
“Consent decrees have proven to be vital tools in upholding the rule of law and promoting transformational change in the state and local governmental entities where they are used,” said Associate Attorney General Gupta. “The department must do everything it can to guarantee that they remain so by working to ensure that the monitors who help implement these decrees do so efficiently, consistently and with meaningful input and participation from the communities they serve.”
The 19 actions in the memo will ensure that any future monitorships of state and local governmental meet five principals outlined in Associate Attorney General Gupta’s memo:
The steps the department will take going forward in all monitor agreements to ensure that these principles are met include:
Associate Attorney General Gupta and Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Civil Rights Division will convene a group of stakeholders within the next 90 days to begin working on the set of monitorship training materials and tools outlined in the memo.