The Department of Justice has historically played a critical role in holding law enforcement officers accountable for violations of constitutional and federal law. The Civil Rights Division has long pursued criminal prosecutions of law enforcement officials who willfully violated constitutional rights. Beginning in 1994, Congress expanded the Division’s authority to include civil actions addressing systemic misconduct in state and local law enforcement agencies. Together, these criminal and civil enforcement authorities serve to remedy unlawful conduct, vindicate the rule of law, promote institutional accountability, and build public trust.

Pattern or Practice Statute: 34 U.S.C. § 12601

In 1991, footage of Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King, an unarmed Black man, aired on national television, sparking public outrage. Congress then focused its attention on gaps in federal law that left systemic police abuses largely unchecked. While the Civil Rights Division could—and did—criminally prosecute individual officers for wrongdoing, it lacked the authority to force police departments to make changes necessary to prevent and address misconduct. 

To fill this gap, in 1994, Congress empowered the Department of Justice to file lawsuits against state or local governments whose law enforcement agencies engage in a “pattern or practice” of conduct that violates the Constitution or federal law. 

Since 1994, the Division has used that law (now codified at 34 U.S.C. § 12601) to investigate roughly 85 law enforcement agencies across the country, focusing on issues like unjustified police shootings and other unlawful uses of force; discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, and gender; and illegal stops and searches. The Division has also investigated a range of other issues, from discrimination against people with behavioral health disabilities to retaliation against people exercising their First Amendment rights. 

The Division has historically approached this work with diligence and integrity, recognizing that police officers have difficult and dangerous jobs while following the facts and the law to expose abuses of power. To assess an agency’s practices, investigators examined police reports, department policies, complaints, internal investigations, and body-camera video of police encounters. They participated in ride-alongs with officers, observed training, interviewed department leaders, and met with affected community members. They also collaborated with statistical experts who analyzed the agency’s data and consulted with nationally recognized law enforcement leaders who understand firsthand the challenges officers face. 

Where these careful investigations revealed systemic violations of the Constitution or federal law, the Division generally released a public report describing the legal and factual basis for its findings.

In addition to (or in conjunction with) its pattern or practice authority under 34 U.S.C. § 12601, the Division has addressed discrimination by law enforcement under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits recipients of federal financial assistance from engaging in discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in their programs and activities, either through pattern or practice investigations or as standalone discrimination matters. Similarly, the Division has enforced Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act to address discrimination against people with disabilities in law enforcement programs, services, and activities. Read more about the Division’s disability work.

Separately, the Division has enforced Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination by law enforcement agencies in their capacity as employers. Read more about the Division’s employment work. 

Systemic Reform Agreements and Enforcement

When the Civil Rights Division’s pattern or practice investigations have revealed systemic violations of federal law, the Division has worked with the law enforcement agency to agree on reforms that eliminate the root causes of those violations. These reforms have included revising policies to conform with constitutional and federal law requirements, many of which are consistent with the principles of 21st-century policing; strengthening training to ensure officers have the tools and skills needed to serve the public effectively and fairly; improving supervision; establishing meaningful systems to investigate complaints and hold officers accountable; and collecting data to promote transparency and oversight. 

Typically, these commitments have been memorialized in consent decrees or other agreements that not only protect people’s rights but also promote public trust and public safety, with compliance often independently monitored and publicly reported to ensure accountability and transparency. As law enforcement agencies implemented the resulting reforms over several years, the Division has stayed engaged to ensure they were effective. For example, the conclusions of the agreements in Seattle and Albuquerque in 2025 reflected substantial, court-recognized improvements in policies, practices, and accountability systems.

The Division has entered into and worked to enforce dozens of consent decrees and other reform agreements with law enforcement agencies since 1994. Read DOJ’s 2017 report on its pattern or practice work. 

Amidst ongoing and renewed calls for police reform, working to prevent police misconduct and hold law enforcement accountable for systemic violations remains vitally important today.

Criminal Prosecutions: 18 U.S.C. § 242

In addition to its pattern or practice civil investigations, the Civil Rights Division also criminally prosecutes individual law enforcement officers under 18 U.S.C. § 242, a Reconstruction-era statute that makes it a federal crime for anyone acting under “color of law” to willfully deprive someone of rights secured by the Constitution or federal law. Under this statute, the Department has brought some of the most consequential civil rights prosecutions in the nation’s history. During the civil rights era, the Division used its criminal civil rights authority to prosecute state and local officials involved in racially motivated violence, including in the federal case arising from the 1964 murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner in Mississippi. Decades later, the Division indicted the officers who beat Rodney King in 1991, convicting two at trial. More recently, the Division secured convictions against the officers involved in the murder of George Floyd in 2020, including convictions for failing to intervene to protect Mr. Floyd against another officer’s violence. 

Section 242 applies to anyone acting under color of law, including local, state, and federal law enforcement officials. Because federal law enforcement agencies conduct street-level enforcement less frequently than state and local agencies, prosecutions of federal officers under Section 242 are relatively rare and most commonly involve violations of the rights of individuals in custodial settings, particularly within the Federal Bureau of Prisons. When credible allegations of serious misconduct by federal law enforcement officers do arise, however, matters are typically referred to the Division’s prosecutors, given their unique expertise and longstanding role in investigating and prosecuting law enforcement misconduct.

These criminal prosecutions play a critical role in assuring the public that law enforcement who intentionally violate the law can be held individually accountable.

Read more about the Division’s criminal civil rights prosecutions.