MINNEAPOLIS — The Justice Department moved Wednesday to cancel settlements with Minneapolis and Louisville that called for an overhaul of their police departments following the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor that became the catalyst for nationwide racial injustice protests in the summer of 2020.

The Trump administration also announced it was retracting the findings of Justice Department investigations into six other police departments that the Biden administration had accused of civil rights violations.

The moves represent a dramatic about-face for a department that under Democratic President Joe Biden had aggressively pushed for federal oversight of local police forces it accused of widespread abuses.

The Trump administration accused previous Justice Department leadership of using flawed legal theories to judge police departments and pursuing costly and burdensome court-enforced settlements known as consent decrees to address alleged problems it argues are better dealt with at the local level.

“It’s our view at the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division under the Trump administration that federal micromanagement of local police should be a rare exception, and not the norm,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, the new leader of the division, told reporters.

The DOJ announced its decision just before the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

Then-officer Derek Chauvin used his knee on May 25, 2020, to pin the Black man to the pavement for 9 1/2 minutes in a case that sparked protests around the world and a national reckoning with racism and police brutality.

The Biden administration launched pattern-and-practice investigations into police departments across the country, uncovering issues such as racial discrimination and excessive force. The Justice Department in the final weeks of the previous administration reached consent decree agreements with Minneapolis and Louisville, but the settlements had yet to be approved by a judge.

Police reform advocates denounced the move to walk away from the agreements, saying a lack of federal oversight will put communities at risk.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and police Chief Brian O’Hara pledged at a news conference Wednesday that the city will abide by the terms of the federal agreement as it was signed.

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said the city remains committed to reforming its police force.