A report from U.S. Justice Department attorneys overseeing the V.I. Police Department’s compliance with a 16-year-old federal consent decree will be delayed because of the ongoing shutdown of the federal government.

The department’s Civil Rights Division wrote U.S. District Court Chief Judge Robert Molloy last week to request a stay, saying that they would not be able to file this month’s report because attorneys had been furloughed while Democrats and Republicans in Congress continued to spar over a federal appropriations bill. Molloy granted the request Wednesday but said the parties are still required to attend an evidentiary hearing in December, barring a subsequent order to continue.

Molloy told police officials, Justice Department attorneys, and a court-appointed monitor during the last evidentiary hearing in September that local law enforcement was on the “right track” and “right path” to complying with the consent decree, which was entered in 2009 following allegations that VIPD officers habitually deprived Virgin Islanders of their constitutional rights. That recent hearing covered reporting periods up to May 31. Since then, officers on St. Croix and St. Thomas have shot and killed at least two men: Alejandro Torres III, 48, on July 17 and Tyler Simpson, 36, on St. Thomas.

The Source has repeatedly sought information about those killings. Earlier this month, VIPD finally provided a copy of its body-worn camera policy, which states that public records requests for bodycam footage “shall be accepted and processed, in accordance with the provisions of federal and territorial law and forwarded to the Project Administrator.’ Further, “Public and Media request [sic] will be forwarded to the Public Information Officer.”

Another section states that body-worn camera footage “for release pursuant to a public records request or as authorized by the Commissioner or designee, shall be redacted, as required by law and Department procedures, prior to release.”

The Source responded by again requesting footage recorded by officers involved in the shootings of Torres and Simpson but has not received a response.

Though U.S. Justice Department attorneys were unable to submit a report this month, attorneys for the V.I. Justice Department submitted their own status report on behalf of the VIPD. According to Assistant Attorney General Ariel Smith, the department has one Force Review Board report awaiting Commissioner Mario Brooks’s review and signature, and investigative reports into two “Level 1” use of force incidents have been sent to supervisors for review before being forwarded to the board.

The only explicit acknowledgment of the summer’s killings was a statement that “VIPD is currently providing training (i.e., building entry) to their officers based on the body-worn camera reviews of officers of the most recent Officer-Involved Shooting Incidents,” according to the report.