'Disrespect for the people': Merrick Garland issues scathing report into LMPD practices

Three years after Breonna Taylor was shot and and killed in her apartment, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland released a blistering report Wednesday finding that the city and its police department have violated the constitutional rights of its citizens, particularly Black people.

Garland also announced Louisville has agreed “in principle” to forge a consent decree that will be enforced by a federal judge who will monitor the city’s progress in adopting reforms.

The department, for years, "has practiced an aggressive style of policing that it deploys selectively, especially against Black people, but also against vulnerable people throughout the city," Garland said during a press conference at Metro Hall. "LMPD cites people for minor offenses, like wide turns and broken taillights, while serious crimes like sexual assault and homicide go unsolved.

"Some officers demonstrate disrespect for the people they are sworn to protect," he said, adding the department found incidents of officers calling Black people “monkey, animal and boy.”

The 90-page report from the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice found LMPD:

• Uses excessive force, including unjustified neck restraints and unreasonable use of police dogs and tasers

• Conducts searches based on invalid warrants.

• Unlawfully executes warrants without knocking and announcing.

• Unlawfully stops, searches, detains and arrests people during traffic and pedestrian stops.

• Violates the rights of people engaged in protected speech critical of policing.

• Discriminates against people with behavioral health disabilities while responding to crises.

The report also offered 36 remedial measures it says LMPD should adopt on serving search warrants and other areas identified as deficiencies.

Garland said the police's behavior erodes trust in the department and is an “affront to the people of Louisville, who deserve better” and to officers who respect the law and Constitution.

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Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg promised to cooperate with the DOJ.

“To those people who've been harmed, on behalf of our city government, I'm sorry,” said Greenberg, who took office two months ago. “You deserve better.”

The investigation spanned the years 2016 to 2021, when Greg Fischer was mayor. He issued a statement Wednesday defending his administration and noting that federal officials lauded his "proactive leadership."

"Today’s findings – paired with those from the independent audit by Hillard Heintze that I initiated in 2020 – presents Louisville with an opportunity to be a national leader and a model in building a truly just public safety system. I believe good police officers will welcome this report as an opportunity to more easily meet the oath they swore to protect and serve our community and improve their daily job performance and profession."

Consent decrees in other cities have placed police departments under federal review for as long as 10 years.

The report was the culmination of an investigation announced 23 months ago.

Garland said investigators interviewed hundreds of police, citizens, clergy, defense lawyers, judges and others, and reviewed thousands of hours of police body camera videos.

Garland noted LMPD has already instituted some reforms, such as banning “no-knock” searches.

But he and his deputies said LMPD continues to stop drivers, especially Black motorists, on pretexts and is twice as likely to search them as whites.

They also are twice or more likely to be stopped for having only one working headlight or excessively tinted windows.

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said consent decrees have dramatically reduced use of force by police in Seattle, Albuquerque and Baltimore.

Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for Civil Rights, said in the wake of Taylor’s death and subsequent national protests, Americans across the country are demanding greater accountability and reforms for law enforcement.

“People in Louisville deserve constitutional policing,” she said. “They deserve policing that is fair and non-discriminatory.”

Clarke outlined a bleak picture of how the Louisville police department operates and how elected officials charged with overseeing the department failed to do their jobs as well.

She said, for instance, Louisville police selectively targeted Black people compared to their white counterparts.

“Our investigation found that the police department and city government failed to adequately protect and serve the people of Louisville, breached the public's trust and discriminated against Black people through unjustified stop, searches and arrests,” she said.

The investigation found that Black residents were disproportionately impacted for various infractions such as loitering and traffic stops, in which federal officials said they were 50% more likely to be searched than white drivers.

“This pattern of racial discrimination fuels distrust and impedes the community's confidence in LMPD and their law enforcement operations,” Clarke said.

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The FBI also has been investigating Taylor’s killing separately. The DOJ also has charged several Louisville officers in separate cases since 2020, including four former LMPD personnel in early August on charges either of lying on the warrant obtained to search Taylor’s home, obstructing investigators or — in the case of ex-Detective Brett Hankison — firing bullets that entered a neighboring apartment.

Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, previously tweeted that “I can’t wait for the world to see Louisville Police Department for what it really is,” in response to the DOJ’s announced investigation.

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No officers were directly indicted and prosecuted by Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s office for Taylor’s death, though several were later fired or submitted resignations. Hankison was charged at the state level in 2020 with wanton endangerment for firing bullets that went into an apartment neighboring Taylor's that was occupied by three people, and a jury acquitted him in March.

City officials estimated in 2021 that reforms at LMPD prompted by the DOJ investigation could cost Louisville up to $10 million annually, and the city directed some federal American Rescue Plan funds to that area. The changes have already included a new Accountability and Improvement Bureau at LMPD and launch of an early warning system for officers after years of delays.

Interim LMPD Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel vowed to make the department the most "trusted, trained and transparent" in the United States.

Greenberg, in an apparent reference to the city's rate of murders and other crimes, said: "We need our officers to solve crimes while treating people with dignity and respect."

He called the report a "painful picture of our department's past" and promised to change "how we recruit, train and manage our more than 1,000 officers."

Reporter Billy Kobin contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Breonna Taylor case: DOJ releases investigation into Louisville police