Former Louisville mayor, officials and community react to 'discriminatory' findings in DOJ's probe of LMPD

Today, the United States Department of Justice confirmed what the people of Louisville already knew - the Louisville Metro Police Department has long engaged in unconstitutional practices and policies that violate constitutional rights. While we are grateful that the Department of Justice has acknowledged what we have long known to be true, this simple acknowledgement will not serve to prevent future violations of constitutional rights or reduce police violence in our city. For any meaningful change to happen, systemic changes in how we address violence must occur.

This meaningful change begins with transparent negotiations on the upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between Louisville Metro Government and the River City Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). Unfortunately, Mayor Greenberg has already stated that these negotiations will be kept behind closed doors, despite years of the community demanding otherwise. Allowing for transparency in the CBA process, as Mayor Greenberg promised on the campaign trail, is a critical part of ensuring that we stop LMPD’s repeated violation of individuals’ constitutional rights. It is not too late for the Mayor to bring transparency into this process – he has the authority to bring community observers to the negotiating table. All he has to do is act.

The DOJ report released today acknowledges the impediment that the FOP and the current collective bargaining agreement pose to record retention and discipline for misconduct. Yet, the DOJ has not asserted jurisdiction over the FOP or the bargaining process. Many of the changes highlighted in this report cannot happen without the DOJ taking jurisdiction over the FOP, mandating both an open bargaining process and that the Mayor negotiate for CBA terms to address the findings of the report. The situation in Louisville is exactly the type of exceptional circumstance that warrants the DOJ in taking this jurisdiction.

The 490 Project will be exploring the possibility of intervening in the consent decree toward these goals. Community involvement in any agreement involving the FOP, whether it be a consent decree or the CBA process, requires community input to be transparent and bring real, needed change to Louisville.

Like many people across Louisville, my heart breaks for Breonna Taylor and her family all over again. Just a few days short of the third anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s inexcusable killing by police, the Department of Justice confirmed what we already knew: the Louisville Metro Police Department consistently violated people’s constitutional and civil rights. The investigation found that Louisville Metro police officers have engaged in the use of excessive force, unlawful execution of search warrants, and discriminatory practices against Black communities.

I fully support the Department of Justice’s consent decree to collaboratively work with Louisville Metro, Louisville Metro Police Department, and the community to begin righting these harmful wrongs. Excessive use of force and racial profiling in the Louisville Metro Police Department will continue to plague our community until we take decisive action to create true, lasting change. We simply cannot afford to wait.

There’s so much we can do. We stand ready as a partner with local community organizations and officials to move forward together. We can pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to address excessive use of force and nationally ban no-knock warrants. We can pass the Mental Health Justice Act to ensure trained mental health professionals respond to crises. We can and must prevent more needless and tragic deaths from happening.

Today’s report is a long overdue step in the right direction to hold our law enforcement accountable, but it does nothing to undo the centuries of systemic injustice Black communities have endured. We must commit to change, accountability, and justice for Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Tyre Nichols, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, and the far too many others who were killed by police.

The family of Breonna Taylor is encouraged by the findings released today by Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division revealing a pattern of biased policing and a long list of constitutional violations by the Louisville Metro Police Department.

These findings, and LMPD’s expected cooperation with the DOJ’s recommended remedial measures, will help protect the citizens of Louisville and shape its culture of policing. It’s steps like these, and involvement of the Attorney General and the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, that will move our nation forward and prevent future tragedies like the one that took the life of Breonna Taylor and the countless others who have been killed unnecessarily by law enforcement.

LMPD's continued refusal to stop using chemical weapons against the residents of Louisville was already indicative of their lack of respect for basic constitutional rights and civil liberties of the people they’re sworn to protect,” said Corey Shapiro, legal director for the ACLU of Kentucky. “These findings underscore what many have said for a long time: there is a dire need for broad scale reform of LMPD and their practices.

We commend the Justice Department’s extensive investigation into the Louisville Metro Police Department. As these findings make clear, the LMPD has a long history of using violence and intimidation to violate the constitutional rights of Louisville residents,” said LDF President and Director-Counsel Janai Nelson. “There is a long road ahead to ensure that the people of Louisville can feel safe in their own city. And while law enforcement accountability is critical, it is equally important to provide impacted community members with relief for all that they have endured.

The US Department of Justice’s report outlines heartbreaking findings of a pattern of unconstitutional and unlawful practices by Louisville’s police department. Louisville is proud to be a welcoming and diverse city, but the sobering findings of the DOJ report show we have much work still to do to ensure every person in our community feels welcome and safe. Over the last three years, our community has taken steps to acknowledge previous wrongdoings, address inequities, and remove systemic barriers, and today we recognize that is only the beginning. GLI and the business community pledge to work with Mayor Greenberg, LMPD, and our community to support critical reforms to Louisville’s policing and increase mechanisms of accountability to rebuild trust with all members of our community.

Well, we want to very carefully review any report or findings that come out, review them for how we might be able to help the city of Louisville and LMPD or review them for best practices with other law enforcement, and the Department of DOCJT, which trains most city police and sheriff's deputies, falls under the executive branch, so we'll want to take a look about what we can do better, listen, our law enforcement should know that we need them and we care about them and we support them, but we also have to do it right. Do you think this DOJ report will help make things right with law enforcement at LMPD, as well as in the state, and maybe nationwide? Well, we gotta see the report, anytime that there's a finding or anytime that there's a challenging situation, we've gotta learn from it.

I hope however any findings are explained that anyone is clear that the vast majority of our law enforcement are wonderful people, who put their lives on the line to protect us, that doesn't mean that we don't need to do better and with the type of authority that come in law enforcement to be thoughtful about how we're always improving. Does Breonna Taylor deserve this? You know, her mom is somebody I got to know and while we often focus on the events leading up to it, I think about that family's loss a lot, I'm the parent of a 13 and a 12-year-old and I can't imagine losing a child, but a community like Louisville deserved the absolute best from law enforcement and I believe LMPD wants to give them the best, so I hope any findings are used to make the types of improvements that are needed.

The FOP believes that policing is one of the noblest professions to exist in our great country. The men and women of the LMPD are dedicated, caring professionals who strive every day to protect and serve this community with honor and integrity.

There are many factors and circumstances, existing over a long period of time, which culminated in the publication of this DOJ report. The most damning of these factors being the continued leadership failures by past Louisville Metro administrations. Over a generation of irresponsible political leadership and failed leadership within LMPD, appointed by these administrations, have tarnished the image of what should be one of the premier law enforcement agencies in this country. The FOP has bemoaned these leadership failures for years -- to no avail. This is no surprise to those who have been paying attention to and witnessing what has transpired in our community. The members of the LMPD and the citizens they serve have suffered the consequences of these leadership failures, to include critical staffing shortages, sky rocketing levels of violent crime, inadequate facilities, and the need for more adequate training - just to mention a few.

Unfortunately, no law enforcement agency is without flaws. There have been instances where officers have acted in a manner that is not consistent with the values, ethics, and morals of good policing. Some of those instances have been referenced in the DOJ report. However, there are protocols in place to address those transgressions and officers have been held accountable. The FOP supports holding police officers accountable for their actions. Officers, like all citizens, also have a right to due process and the FOP is here to ensure that right is afforded to our members.

We feel very strongly that this report is an unfair assessment of the great work that is accomplished daily by the vast majority of LMPD officers. We also feel very strongly that this report should not go unchallenged and should be dissected for evidentiary value.

After having the opportunity to fully examine and digest the details of this report, the FOP will be able to better address the specific findings.

RCFOP Ludge 614 looks forward to partnering with Mayor Greenberg's administration, current LMPD leadership and the Department of Justice to navigate this process as we move forward.

On March 8, 2023, the United States Attorney General Merrick Garland, US Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, and US Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke visited Louisville to announce the findings of the Department of Justice’s nearly two-year-long investigation into the Louisville Metro Police
Department (LMPD). The report concluded that Louisville Metro and LMPD engaged in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprived people of their rights under the Constitution and federal law. While their scathing review
of department behavior is unsurprising to many, it is still a painful validation of the unconstitutional indignity and inhumanity so many Louisvillians, particularly Black people, women, and children, have faced for many years. The Louisville Urban League appreciates the thorough and intentional investigation the DOJ has conducted. We respect the fact that changes through a consent decree will take time to co-create and implement. However, it is critical that we also acknowledge how incredibly patient this community has been in waiting for change to come.The idea that we will have to wait even longer for these changes feels like more injustice.

We’ve waited for nearly three years. The DOJ submitted its report just five days shy of the 3rd anniversary of the day Breonna Taylor was killed by police. David McAtee was killed a few months later. In the time since, and decades prior, Louisvillians have been subjected to countless attacks on their constitutional rights and humanity by agents of our very own government–as confirmed by the Attorney General’s statements. The need for change–wholesale change–is urgent and long overdue. There are opportunities the city can capitalize on right
now.

First, the city can make all future FOP contract negotiations public. The League, and many other community organizations, are on record calling for public contract negotiations. Mayor Greenberg has refused that request for the first round of negotiations this year, but in yesterday’s press conference, he said he hoped that LMPD would eventually become the “most trusted, trained, and transparent police force in America.” We wonder if the mayor will be willing to move beyond words toward that goal. What he can do to reach it is to appoint impacted members of the community and thoughtful advocates to the team that will sit in on negotiations. Those individuals will not only voice community concerns but will also provide accountability for a system in desperate
need of sound, public oversight.

This lack of oversight has led us to this point. The DOJ report confirms what we already know–frivolous traffic stops, or “broken taillight policing” is a regular source of police misconduct, harassment, and abuse across the county. The DOJ investigation affirmed abuses we’d previously stated: “For years, LMPD has practiced an aggressive style of policing that it deploys selectively, especially against Black people, but also against vulnerable people throughout the city.” Furthermore, the report affirmed that the LMPD “disproportionately targets Black residents whether they are in a majority Black neighborhood or not.” In our December 5, 2022, Courier Journal opinion piece, we called for a civilian staff to do traffic control to limit the interactions between the police and the community because officers cannot seem to conduct lawful traffic stops without violating the constitutional rights, bodily sovereignty, and human dignity of residents.

The DOJ Report states clearly on the very first page that “[f]ailures of leadership and accountability have allowed unlawful conduct to continue unchecked. Even when city and police leaders announced solutions, they failed to follow through. In LMPD, officer misconduct too often goes unnoticed and unaddressed.” LUL and other organizations have consistently offered solutions that go unheard. Either the administration is afraid of the police or they agree with their practices because none of the efforts of community organizations seemed to make an
impact on city leadership’s policies. 

As Dr. Price said in her interview with Leo, “So much has been done to create a culture of mistrust. In order to even begin to try to rebuild trust, leadership must start with listening to the community and then responding to what the community is sharing.” By closing off the FOP negotiations to the community, Mayor Greenberg rejects this opportunity to rebuild, to ultimately become the “trusted, trained, and transparent” police force Mayor Greenberg prophesied.

The other issue that affects policing in Louisville is the recalcitrant nature of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). As evidenced by the recent statement about the report, they continue to use emotional manipulation to minimize the problems within LMPD. There are ample examples in the report that police officers treated people unconstitutionally and inhumanely and received no discipline, retraining, or consequences. The FOP would have us believe that “there are protocols in place to address those transgressions and officers have been held accountable,” but the facts of this report clearly dispute that assertion. In the FOP’s haste to slam the DOJ report, it claims city leadership and poor training is the cause for poor policing in Louisville. The DOJ report agrees with this assessment. Even though the FOP claims that training is an issue, police officers refuse to follow training that requires them to request search warrants be reviewed by the judge on call and, instead, just go to approximately 6 of the 30 judges on the Jefferson County bench. If police officers (rank and file and supervisors alike) do not
agree with a policy they seem to be resistant to following it. Assistant AG Kristen Clarke even stated, “in some instances, there were no policies to prevent the misconduct that we saw.”

The League has encouraged city leaders to invest in non-police strategies. As we wrote in a December op-ed, “In A Path Forward for Louisville, we demanded investments in the education, health, and safety of Black people,
instead of investments in the criminalizing, caging, and harming of Black people1. We have also united with the business community in calling for investments in group violence intervention strategies, like No More Red Dots, a
program run by Dr. Eddie Woods2.”

We demand a speedy implementation of the DOJ's recommendations since many of the 36 recommended remedial measures are policies and procedures that have already been suggested by the Louisville Urban League
and other organizations: “improve community engagement in violent crime reduction measures;” “improve policies related to protests and demonstrating;” and “improve coordination between MetroSafe and the Crisis Line” are just a few of the examples. These remedial measures are simply changes in policy, training, and accountability. There is no accountability without transparency.

This blistering report has rendered Louisville and the LMPD temporarily transparent, exposing to the world the pretend shock of city administrators to complaints that community members, activists, and organizations have
made for decades. In this deep dive, the DOJ has provided city leadership with the needed evidence to force LMPD to change its patterns and practices. For decades, Black people living in Louisville have been under a segregated and inequitable system of justice. Our calls for human rights and dignity have been acknowledged and affirmed. Now, the real work begins– the pursuit of equal justice under the law for everyone.

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