PORAC released a research brief, Evaluating Police Consent Decrees: From Compliance to Results, examining decades of federal police consent decrees and raising concerns about whether the current system consistently delivers meaningful improvements in constitutional policing, public safety, or community trust. The report finds that success is often measured by compliance with decree requirements rather than measurable outcomes. It also highlights structural concerns, including significant compliance costs for jurisdictions, lengthy oversight periods that can last more than a decade, challenges related to officer recruitment and morale, and a lack of comprehensive evaluation demonstrating that consent decrees consistently produce safer communities or more equitable policing. The brief calls for reforms to ensure consent decrees are targeted, transparent, outcome-driven, and limited to extreme cases where systemic issues cannot be addressed locally.
Peace Officers Research Association of California