LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Changes are coming to the way police officers obtain search warrants in Jefferson County, just two weeks after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) shed light on a system it said has major flaws.
That included Louisville Metro Police (LMPD) officers seeking out specific judges for easier approval of their affidavits despite broad evidence, according to the DOJ's findings.
Now, a high-ranking court official and a retired judge said a new electronic search warrant program being piloted in Kentucky could help remedy some of the issues.
Jefferson County Circuit Court Clerk David Nicholson expects it to be rolled out in Louisville by Labor Day.
"[It's] critically important to the community and to its citizens," he said. "It is erasing questions, transparency concerns, without jeopardizing the case."
Nicholson served on the 2021 task force headed by Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, with the goal to reform how search warrants are obtained and executed across the state.
"We do a little over 2,700 search warrants a year in Jefferson County," Nicholson said. "That's paper that's not in a database."
The task force was formed a year after Breonna Taylor's death and resulted in a list of eight recommendations. The top recommendation: For every county to use an all-digital platform to submit applications for search warrants.
The thought is to create a better paper trail and accessibility across departments.
"It's going to make it very clear who is reviewing or signing a warrant in this community," Nicholson said.
The day after the DOJ report dropped, WHAS11 talked about the E-search warrant project with retired circuit judge Charlie Cunningham, who also served on the task force.
He sees the benefit.
"There would be no conversation. They transmit something digitally, that's all you have -- and that makes it very straightforward," Cunningham said.
In their findings, the DOJ said despite Jefferson County having a rotating schedule for judges to review search warrant affidavits, LMPD routinely doesn't follow it.
While this new system is not seen as a fix-all, it could be a step forward for a community that continues to demand change.
Meanwhile, there are other changes happening in the county, spearheaded by the judges themselves.
Effective March 16, all search warrant applications going to a Jefferson Circuit Court judge now must first be handed to Court administration -- not directly to the judge.
That's according to a memo WHAS11 obtained through an open records request.
In it, Chief Circuit Judge Mitch Perry detailed the request to LMPD Interim Chief Jackie Gwinn-Villaroel.
Perry wrote in the letter, "The Circuit term looks forward to working with you to implement this policy." He also noted Jefferson District Court is still providing an on-call judge for search warrant review.
As for the E-warrant project, it's still very much in the pilot stage, implemented in a few small counties so far. The state Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) is partnering with Kentucky State Police (KSP) to consider expanding it into Jefferson County.
The AOC said it'll have updates on this after its next meeting with KSP on April 24.
So far, six rural counties have seen the program implemented in Kentucky, including Harrison, Nicholas, Pendleton, Robertson, Scott and Woodford counties.
The pilot will expand to Shelby, Anderson and Spencer counties in early April.
State officials say they want to start in areas with far less volume first to work out any issues.
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