The old policy stressed that officers should only shoot at a moving vehicle “when it does not create an unreasonable risk of harm to innocent persons.”
As protests continued in Louisville, criminal justice leaders discussed what reform measures they’d lobby for. The police and prosecutors often weren’t on board.
Tammy Riggs was at work when she got an alert on her phone from a local news station about a police shooting. She watched the station’s live video stream for hours. “And I didn’t know it was my son,” she said.
ByEleanor Klibanoff of KyCIR and Carrie Cochran, Maren Machles, Karen Rodriguez, and Maia Rosenfeld of Newsy |
Usually, when LMPD kills someone, families are left entirely in the dark about how the police are handling the case, an investigation by Newsy and the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting found.
ByEleanor Klibanoff, KyCIR and Carrie Cochran, Karen Rodriguez, Maia Rosenfeld and Maren Machles, Newsy |
As part of its historic, $12 million settlement with the family of Breonna Taylor, Louisville has agreed to implement several major police reforms, including creating an early warning system to identify officer behavioral trends to prevent misconduct. This is not the first time the city has made such a promise. In the wake of police shootings and as a response to critical audits, the Louisville Metro Police Department has frequently asserted that it already has such a system, or is on the cusp of implementing one. The current LMPD policy manual says it is actively using such a system. But it’s not, a joint investigation by Newsy and the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting has found.
Despite regularly reviewing fatalities for more than 25 years, Louisville’s domestic violence response remains imperfect. The reviews often raise the same issues, again and again.