Criminal Justice
Louisville Police Change Warrant Form, Improve Transparency
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The LMPD made the change shortly after KyCIR and WDRB reported the state issued the new forms — and LMPD wasn’t using it.
Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (https://kycir.org/tag/lmpd/page/2/)
The LMPD made the change shortly after KyCIR and WDRB reported the state issued the new forms — and LMPD wasn’t using it.
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.
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.
When a judge ordered Brett Hankison not to possess any guns, it was up to him to give them up.
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.
Now that the prosecutor has declined to charge the officers who killed Shelby Gazaway, LMPD released the case file.
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.
As time passes, memories of these tumultuous days will fade, and lead to the perception that accountability is not a priority, according to policing experts and local leaders.
If renewed calls for a tougher civilian review board sound familiar, it’s because it’s been a common refrain over the last 20 years — and it’s never really happened.