After the lawsuit was filed Wednesday, the city’s corporation counsel, Ed Siskel, said the city agreed that reforms were necessary, and he criticized the Department of Justice for not following through “with their commitment to a consent decree.”

“The substance of the reforms that we are all trying to achieve is not really in question,” Mr. Siskel said. “It is matters of process that we are discussing.”

He added: “What is not in any doubt is that the road we are on and committed to is a road towards real and lasting, sustainable reform in the police department, and we are not getting off that road.”

But Craig B. Futterman, a University of Chicago law professor who is one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said if the city really was willing to follow through on its pledge to negotiate a federal consent decree, the new lawsuit gave them that opportunity.

“We can do it tomorrow,” he said.

Read more at The New York Times