US

DOJ To Embark On Review Of Obama-Era Policies

(Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

Alex Pfeiffer White House Correspondent
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Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in a memo Monday that the Department of Justice will undergo a department-wide review of policies in order to fulfill his agenda of supporting law enforcement and reducing violent crime.

This includes a review of consent decrees the Obama administration enacted with local law enforcement agencies, such as Baltimore, where police misconduct has been alleged. Attorney General Sessions has maintained that there is a crime problem in the U.S. that isn’t a “blip.”

He said in his first speech that he wishes “the rise that we are seeing in crime in America today were some sort of aberration or a blip, but my best judgment having been involved in criminal law enforcement for many years is that this is a dangerous permanent trend that places the health and safety of the American people at risk.”

In the two page memo, Sessions said that the main goals of the DOJ include the safety and morale of law enforcement officials, the civil rights of the public, local control of law enforcement, effective collection of crime statistics, and collaboration between local and federal law enforcement.

“The Deputy Attorney General and the Associate Attorney General are hereby directed to immediately review all Department activities – including collaborative investigations and prosecutions, grant making, technical assistance and training, compliance reviews, existing or contemplated consent decrees, and task force participation – in order to ensure that they fully and effectively promote the principles outlined above,” Sessions wrote.