From the newsroom of the Washington Post.

Hi, this is Vanessa Williams from the Washington Post.

Hey, it's Philip Rutger at the Washington Post. Do you have a minute?

Hi, this is Dan Zagff.

This is Post Reports. I'm Martine Powers.

It's Wednesday, May 5.

Today, what it means when the federal government polices the police and the new airlines taking flight in a pandemic?

The United States Department of Justice is a federal law enforcement agency.

Comprised of thousands of law enforcement officers who collaborate with and support our colleagues throughout our nation's police departments.

We are uniquely aware of the challenges faced by those who serve as police officers.

Last month, the Justice Department launched two investigations into local law enforcement agencies,

the Minneapolis Police Department and the Louisville Metro Police Department.

It will determine whether LMPD engages in unconstitutional stops, searches and seizures,

as well as whether the Department unlawfully executes search warrants on private homes.

It will also assess whether LMPD engages in discriminatory conduct on the basis of race

or fails to provide public services that comply with the Americans with Disability Act.

Attorney General Marik Garland framed this as the start of a process to rebuild trust between marginalized communities and police.

All of these steps will be taken with one goal in mind to ensure that policing, policies and practices are constitutional and lawful.

That is the same goal as that of our investigation in Minneapolis and of every pattern or practice investigation that the Department undertakes.

Part of what the Department of Justice is doing now to address that is it has restarted its program for conducting pattern or practice investigations of police departments.

Under the Obama administration, this had been a very robust practice, the Obama administration brought 25 investigations of police departments, and the Trump administration brought one.

This week we talked to Christy Lopez, she's a professor at Georgetown Law who used to work for the Justice Department looking into local police forces accused of violating civil rights.

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