One Year After the Trump Administration Abandoned Police Reform, New NYCLU and ACLU Report Finds Evidence of Continued Excessive Force

The report provides an update on the ACLU’s Seven States Safety Campaign and presents preliminary findings on police misconduct and transparency in jurisdictions abandoned by the Department of Justice

MOUNT VERNON – One year after the Trump administration abandoned federal police oversight across the country, the American Civil Liberties Union released a report raising concerns that the patterns of excessive force and racial discrimination identified by the prior Department of Justice (DOJ) were ongoing when this administration withdrew from oversight.

The report, Regressive Policing Under President Trump, provides a one-year update on the ACLU’s Seven States Safety Campaign, launched shortly after the DOJ’s announcement that it was abandoning police reform across the country. The campaign focused on law enforcement agencies in seven states where federal civil rights investigations and reports confirmed widespread patterns of police abuse. These included municipal police departments and county sheriff departments in New York, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Arizona, Mississippi, Minnesota, and Kentucky. Through coordinated public records requests and advocacy, the campaign sought to uncover whether the constitutional violations identified by the DOJ continued despite the Trump administration’s decision to walk away.

“A preliminary review of the records we have received confirm what we have seen on the ground for decades and what the Biden DOJ reported. The Mount Vernon Police Department has engaged in a disturbing pattern of force overwhelmingly targeting unarmed Black and brown New Yorkers with no discipline or oversight,” said Daniel Lambright, director of Criminal Justice Litigation at the NYCLU. “It’s shameful that the Trump administration refused to provide oversight and pursue accountability. Mount Vernon residents deserve full transparency, and we will continue working to release our findings to the public. We urge the Mount Vernon Police Department to implement the necessary reforms to rectify this dangerous pattern of police misconduct and racial discrimination.”

“The Trump administration abandoned oversight based on the false claim that the alarming problems uncovered in the DOJ’s investigations were either untrue or had already been addressed,” said Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy director of policing at the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project. “Our preliminary review of these records suggests that many of the same problems identified by the DOJ persisted at the exact moment the federal government was using those claims to justify walking away. Since then, this administration has been actively encouraging the same types of aggressive policing tactics that the DOJ has found to be dangerous and unconstitutional. If the federal government refuses to protect people’s constitutional rights, we deserve transparency about whether the known police misconduct in our communities is being taken seriously.”

Last May, the ACLU and local partners submitted coordinated public records requests to police departments in seven states, seeking use-of-force reports and other records that could shed light on policing practices and patterns of misconduct. The ACLU received more than 600 use-of-force reports and additional records, though many agencies delayed or continue to withhold responsive documents in violation of state public records laws.

The ACLU’s preliminary review of the records suggests that excessive force continues to be a problem across multiple agencies, including improper escalation of force against people experiencing mental health crises, misuse of Tasers, and problematic internal review processes that may fail to identify or address improper use of force. The ACLU’s initial assessment also raises concerns that the racial discrimination identified in DOJ investigations has persisted.

In New York, the Mount Vernon Police Department (MVPD) provided a partial response to the FOIL request that includes 26 use-of-force reports from the years 2020 and 2021. These incidents, involving 50 officers and 28 civilians, show a pattern of racialized policing. The MVPD determined that in all 26 instances, the use of force by the officers was justified and in accordance with their policy.

Specifically, the NYCLU found:

• 57% of the 28 civilians involved in the incidents were Black, 25% were Hispanic, and 18% had no race or ethnicity documented. None of the civilians were white.
• The most common type of use of force was brandished firearms, which occurred to 50% of the 28 individuals, followed by the use of restraining force (43%), and brandished tasers (7%).
• 43% of the individuals involved were passively or not resisting arrest at all.
• 71% of civilians were not armed.

Additionally, arrest data from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) shows that in the last five years (2021-2025), Black people made up 79% of arrests by the Mount Vernon City Police Department, Hispanic people made up 15%, while white people accounted for only 3%.

Many agencies resisted providing records they are legally required to share. One year later, records from numerous departments are still outstanding.

The full report is available here: https://www.nyclu.org/report/regressive-policing-under-president-trump.