Sessions orders nationwide review of police reform decrees including Seattle's

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered a review of police reform agreements -- including Seattle's -- that were negotiated during the Obama administration, to see if the agreements conflict in any way with Trump Administration policies.

The Justice Department released a memo late Monday, with Sessions saying his top deputies will scrutinize agreements reached by the Civil Rights division of the department and local cities and police departments.

The Sessions memo, first reported by the Washington Post, came as the Justice Department asked a judge to postpone a hearing on a police agreement known as a consent decree with the Baltimore police department.

The Seattle Police Department is also operating under a five-year-old consent decree, the result of action initiated by the civil rights division. The reform process has covered SPD training, particularly in the use of force and the defusing of racially charged situations.

Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes: "They can't undo the consent...

A key part of police reform in Seattle has been expanded, independent oversight and beefed-up investigation of alleged police misconduct.

"They can't undo the consent decree in Seattle," City Attorney Pete Holmes was reading Sessions' memo last night.

Holmes had a variety of reactions. He noted the timing of Sessions' memo. "It is just like his 'sanctuary cities' pronouncement last week, coming on a day of bad news for the Trump administration," said Holmes. (The news broke last night of a secret meeting seeking to establish a back channel between Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin.)

As to Sessions' memo, said Holmes: "It is filled with unassailable platitudes about public safety and officer safety. It seems to me that their more immediate target is the consent decree in Baltimore."

In the Baltimore case, asking for a delay in that city's consent decree, Justice said in a filing:

"The Attorney General and the new leadership in the department are actively developing strategies to support the thousands of law enforcement agencies across the country that seek to prevent crime and protect the public.

"The department is working to ensure that those initiatives effectively dovetail with robust enforcement of federal laws designed to preserve and protect civil rights."

In Seattle, Mayor Ed Murray used his State of the City speech to unveil plans for expanded oversight, a key aspect of putting police reform in place. These include creating an independent Office of Inspector General, and expanded authority and autonomy for the SPD's Office of Professional Accountability.

Mayor Murray has also proposed to make permanent the Community Police Commission, which has been active in pushing reform of the SPD.

The killings by police of young African American men has prompted many of the reform efforts across the country.

The Baltimore reform effort was prompted by the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray in police custody. Other cities such as Cleveland, Chicago, New Orleans and Ferguson, Missouri, have been the focus of reform.

The investigation of deaths, and reform of police practices, was pushed by Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch in the Obama administration. The Justice Department's intervention in Seattle came under Civil Rights division head Tom Perez -- later Labor Secretary -- and then-U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan.

Just before Obama left office, Lynch was in Chicago for the release of a Justice Department reform that was sharply critical of Chicago police.

The negotiation of the consent decree in Seattle, overseen by a federal judge, dates back more than four years.