A civil rights attorney is speaking out after the Department of Justice announced that it is dismissing an investigation into alleged misconduct by the Mount Vernon Police Department and several others across the country.

Mount Vernon civil rights attorney Lauren Raysor said she believes police oversight is important.

"If they're punishable for bad acts, then that's what we want," Raysor said.

The longtime lawyer said she was disappointed to learn that the Justice Department is dismissing an investigation into alleged misconduct by the Mount Vernon Police Department and several other departments around the country.

"That's huge for the Justice Department to have that kind of finding. That wasn't willy nilly, that was a full investigation of the police department and the community that came forward to tell their stories," Raysor said.

As News 12 reported back in December, the Justice Department released a report, following a three-year investigation that found the police department engaged in practices that deprive people of their rights.

As a response, Mount Vernon officials vowed to improve their policing at press conference they held, while also acknowledging the reforms they said they've made prior to this investigation.

"While we acknowledge all of the findings, we also lift up some of the things that we had already seen and started to correct," Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard said.

Now that the Justice Department is dismissing the Biden administration's findings, News 12 asked residents if the police department should continue improving their practices.

"Yes they should, but they don't care," a resident named Gregory said.

"They've just always been helpful, never had any issue and any problems and I've lived here for over 20 years," a resident named Omar said.

News 12 reached out to Mount Vernon officials about the dismissal of this investigation, but they said they had no comment.

The New York Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union launched a campaign to uncover police misconduct in Mount Vernon and six other jurisdictions where the justice department has ended their oversight.