Ken Novak, a professor of criminal justice and criminology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, said it is typically in the best interest of cities where the Justice Department conducts pattern or practice reviews to engage and to develop policies and training for corrective behavior.
The federal government can take police departments or cities to court to enforce so-called consent decrees that lay out overhauls in policing practices, but "whether there is sufficient evidence of problematic patterns and practices or whether Kansas City is any closer to a consent decree than it was several months ago" remains unclear, Novak said.
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