LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Community leaders in Louisville are thinking about what they want to see in a new chief of police after Louisville Metro Police Chief Erika Shields announced her upcoming resignation.
Shields will resign on Jan. 2 to make way for Mayor-elect Craig Greenberg's new administration.
“Chief Shields resigning is really good for our community,” Shameka Parrish-Wright, executive director of VOCAL-KY and former Louisville mayoral candidate, said. “I think she did the right thing because she hasn't been able to serve fully.”
Parrish-Wright said Shields didn't connect with the community after she was sworn in January 2021.
Shields came on board as LMPD remained under the microscope, 10 months after Breonna Taylor's death and in the wake of the summer 2020 protests.
At the time, Shields said a lot of "healing" needed to happen and that LMPD was at a crossroads, but there was an opportunity to make it right.
"This was the only job that I wanted because I knew I could make change here," Shields said during the 2021 ceremony.
Parrish-Wright said Shields may have had the right intentions but said she didn’t execute on healing the community.
“She was bringing some old tactics and and ideology that probably was given to her about Louisville,” she said. “Learning about Louisville, living in Louisville, and working in Louisville are different things.”
Rabbi Robert Slosberg, who works with the community organization CLOUT, said he's also felt snubbed the past year when the organization tried to present more solutions-focused policies. He said Shields barely responded to requests to meet.
“It's important to be out there in the community and be accessible to people in the community,” he said.
Bruce Williams, community organizer and pastor of Bates Memorial Church in Smoketown, said while the role of police chief is important, the department as a whole is the most pressing concern.
“People who work in the police force have to overcome this reputation of the culture of policing where it's us against them,” Williams said “That has to be diminished.”
He said changing the culture is the only way to effect real change.
“Seeing police in the context of a more comprehensive approach to the community, so that we can use multiple ways in addressing the issue of crime and violence in the community,” Williams said.
In a statement, Shields said that she was "honored to have led the dedicated and talented officers of the Louisville Metro Police Department during a time of unprecedented change in policing here and across the country."
"Thank you to Mayor Greg Fischer for his trust in me and my team. I am proud to have served this Department as it worked to implement more than 150 reform efforts, a police salary increase to attract and retain the best and brightest, and, most importantly, a reduction in violent crime. I look forward to continuing my service to the Department through the remainder of the Fischer Administration," she said.
In a statement, current Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said he was "deeply appreciative of Shields' service to the community."
"At an incredibly challenging time, she came to Louisville and led an LMPD focused on reform and violent crime reduction, and in just the past year we see the results of that work – homicides down by nearly 14% and shootings are down 30%," Fischer said. "Thank you to Chief Shields, her team, and her family – we are better off for their sacrifice and commitment."
Greenberg said the search for a new police chief will begin immediately.
"We will consider all applicants," he said in a social media post. "I will be naming an interim police chief before January and will continue to keep the city informed throughout the process."
Greenberg announced a 58-person transition team to help guide him through the transition process. He said he'll get input from them and the community in choosing Shields' temporary and permanent replacements.
At a news conference Monday, Greenberg said Shields will work in an advisory role to help with the transition through the end of February next year.
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