LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Metro Louisville Government and Louisville Metro Police are about to embark on a long journey to solve constitutional issues and civil rights violations that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday.
The city and LMPD have instituted several changes since the murder of Breonna Taylor, doing things like banning chokeholds and “no-knock” warrants, but the entire department will now be under the microscope for several years.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday that Louisville Metro and the DOJ are working towards a “consent decree” that will guide police reform.
“It will be a lot of work, but at the end of the day it becomes a cultural change,” Nicholas Gernon, deputy superintendent for the New Orleans Police Department, said.
New Orleans has been working on its own consent decree for the last decade. The DOJ and the city entered into a consent decree in July 2012, and it was approved by a court in January 2013.
Gernon, who has been with the department 21 years, said the process has led to a complete change in policing, and he had harsh words for the way things were before.
“That change was –frankly—necessary. We are not the department that we used to be, and we will never go back to the department that we used to be, and I don’t think anyone here wants to go back to that,” he said.
Gernon said the process involved a review of every single police policy that fell under the umbrella of the consent decree, then a review of all police training and then a review of every supervisor position. As part of that review, they met with officers who were not bought in to the need for change and set the record straight.
“If somebody didn’t support the policies, trainings and the supervision they received, then they would be disciplined up to and including termination,” Gernon said.
The city of New Orleans motioned to vacate the consent decree in May 2013, but it was denied. As recently as last fall, there were renewed cries to end the consent decree, saying the goals had been accomplished.
On Wednesday, Merrick Garland said Louisville leaders and the DOJ had “agreed in principle” to the consent decree, but the full document still needs to be written. Gernon said that is an impressive first step.
“Kudos to Louisville for not litigating that. For saying, ‘We agree to enter into a consent decree,’ and now they’ll go through the process of drafting it," he said.
Gernon feels they are close to finishing all aspects of the agreement, according to conversations with the independent monitor that’s judging their progress. Their consent decree stipulates a two-year review period after the DOJ deems it “done” to ensure the changes were sufficient.
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