Sen. Tom Cotton on Tuesday rebuked Attorney General Merrick Garland for imposing a last-minute takeover of a dozen police departments using federal consent decrees.

He called on the outgoing AG to drop “these midnight lawsuits” and let the incoming Trump administration protect Americans from violent criminals.

Mr. Cotton, Arkansas Republican, said in a letter to Mr. Garland that the Justice Department’s investigations into 12 state and local law enforcement agencies are “a rush to gain federal control of these agencies before President Biden leaves office” in less than two weeks.

Consent decrees are court-approved agreements between the DOJ and local governmental agencies that establish guidance for changes to the way they conduct themselves.

“No police department — like any human institution — is without flaw, but federal consent decrees have a well-established and atrocious record of increasing crime and endangering law-abiding citizens,” the senator wrote.

Mr. Cotton noted that violent crime has surged in seven out of 12 cities that entered federal consent decrees since 2012.

“For instance, violent crime soared by 61% in Los Angeles County, 36% in Albuquerque [New Mexico], 27% in Seattle, 20% in New Orleans and 19% in Maricopa County [Arizona],” he said.

“Your department is reportedly nearest to entering consent decrees with Minneapolis and Louisville, where murders have already reached record highs in recent years,” Mr. Cotton wrote.

“The last thing these cities need is unqualified defund-the-police radicals like Kristen Clarke micromanaging their police departments for the next 10 years.”

Mr. Cotton said crime has skyrocketed during the Biden administration’s time in power and Mr. Garland’s tenure as attorney general.

“We should be arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating criminals — not handcuffing our police. I object to your efforts to perpetuate this administration’s failed policies,” he said. “I urge you to drop these midnight lawsuits and let the new administration get about the business of protecting Americans from violent criminals.”

Mr. Garland, in April 2021, rescinded a Trump administration policy put forth by Attorney General Jeff Sessions that restricted the use of consent decrees to deal with police misconduct.

During the Obama administration, the Justice Department often used consent decrees and court monitors to drive changes on police forces found to routinely have misconduct incidences amid racial riots that sprang from the law enforcement killings of Black men in Baltimore, Chicago and Ferguson, Missouri.

Similarly, Mr. Garland decided the DOJ would revive the practice of using consent decrees after Black Lives Matter riots broke out following what was deemed the killing of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.