Here are the 7 people advising Greenberg as he selects Louisville's next police chief

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg announced last month that a seven-person committee would assist him with interviews in the search for Louisville Metro Police’s next chief.

“The different perspectives and expertise that the members of this group bring to the table will help ensure we have a chief who will help us continue to build the most trusted, trained and transparent police department in the nation,” he said in a June 30 press release.

The next chief will take over LMPD as the force awaits an all-but-certain federal consent decree following the scathing findings of a 90-page Department of Justice investigation into misconduct and unconstitutional policing by the department. The DOJ probe was launched following the 2020 police killing of Breonna Taylor, which also sparked months of protests and deepened distrust of the department.

Responding to inquiries from The Courier Journal, mayor’s office spokesperson Kevin Trager said the members of the advisory committee will be conducting interviews with candidates over the next two weeks. He added the administration expects to name the next chief by the end of July.

While the panel will interview candidates and provide feedback to the mayor, Trager said the decision on who to hire is ultimately Greenberg’s.

Although other major cities name finalists in their police chief search and hold publicly broadcast forums for candidates to answer questions, Louisville will not. Further, Trager said, members of the committee have had to sign non-disclosure agreements.

Here’s a look at the seven committee members:

J. Michael Brown

Brown is the director of Pre-Law at Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically Black college in Louisville. He was also the chair of Mayor Craig Greenberg’s 58-person transition team.

Previously, he was the deputy attorney general under then-Attorney General Andy Beshear. After Beshear became governor, Brown served as executive cabinet secretary. Beshear referred to Brown as his “closest adviser” and like Greenberg, picked him to lead his transition team following his 2019 election win over former Gov. Matt Bevin.

Under Beshear’s father, former Gov. Steve Beshear, Brown was secretary of the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet.

Brown is a vocal supporter of the newly established Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. Center for Racial Justice at Simmons College, which aims to address racial inequity in Louisville.

“The community needs an ongoing response, not just to the DOJ report but to the underlying, systemic issues raised in the DOJ report about racism in Louisville,” Brown said of the center in an interview with Louisville Public Media.

He graduated from the University of Louisville's law school and subsequently served as a Louisville District Court judge, the law director for the city and the president of the Louisville Bar Association.

Brown also served in the Army’s 82nd and 101st airborne divisions.

State Rep. Keturah Herron

Following the police killing of Taylor in March 2020, Herron — at the time a policy strategist with the ACLU of Kentucky — led efforts to ban no-knock warrants in Louisville, which she said were used to “terrorize and harm Black and brown communities.”

Herron has been openly critical of police misconduct and biased policing.

In 2020 she also criticized the secrecy surrounding Louisville’s search for a police chief at the time, telling Louisville Public Media: “There is no reason not to let the public in on this process.” Then, like now, no finalists were named and members of the committee interviewing candidates were made to sign non-disclosure agreements.

In 2022, Herron was elected as Kentucky’s first openly LGBTQ House representative, defeating Republican Judy Martin Stallard to win the District 42 seat in Louisville.

Rebecca Grignon-Reker

Grignon-Reker is the executive director of the Louisville Metro Police Foundation, a nonprofit organization that collects donations to finance equipment, training and other programs for LMPD. The foundation also partners with LMPD every winter for “Shop With a Cop,” a program that helps provide Christmas gifts for impoverished children.

Gringon-Reker was the director of community engagement for the organization before becoming the executive director in 2022, following the retirement of Tracie Shifflet.

She is the widow of fallen police Officer Peter Grignon, who was the first member of LMPD to die in the line of duty after the merger of the Louisville Division of Police and the Jefferson County Police Department.

Grignon-Reker has been vocal about supporting Officer Nickolas Wilt, who was critically injured when he was shot responding to the Old National Bank mass shooting in April.

Paula McCraney

Councilwoman Paula McCraney is the Majority Caucus chair of the Louisville Metro Council and represents District 7. She owns P Mc & Associates, a management consulting and strategic planning company, and a shop called the Traveling Boutique.

McCraney, who has been on the council since 2019, is one of five council members who recently voted against granting LMPD over $15 million in American Rescue Plan funds for renovating a new headquarters and department wellness center.

The Democratic councilwoman was also a panelist for "Racial Reckoning," a series of community talks on racial justice issues facing Louisville after Taylor's killing.

Rev. Corrie Shull

Shull is one of the seven members of the Jefferson County Board of Education. Additionally, he is the pastor at Burnett Avenue Baptist Church.

As a member of the Jefferson County Board of Education, Shull was outspoken against efforts to introduce armed police officers into Jefferson County Public Schools, arguing in 2019 that their presence would make schools more dangerous and could “create an environment of fear and distrust.”

Eventually, in 2022, state law mandated all Kentucky schools have an armed officer present.

In February of this year, Shull initiated conversations about installing weapon detectors at all middle and high schools. He voted in favor of equipment that would require an armed officer in each building as students go through the detectors.

Ryan Nichols

Nichols is the president of the River City Fraternal Order of Police, the union representing LMPD officers.

After a judge released Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, from custody, Nichols called the move “a slap in the face to everyone wearing a badge.” Walker fired a single shot as police breached the door to Taylor’s apartment on March 13, 2020, striking former LMPD Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the leg. Police responded by firing more than 30 times, killing Taylor.

After banners memorializing Taylor were hung in downtown Louisville in 2020 — some reading “Black Lives Matter” — Nichols called for their removal.

“One of the banners said Black Lives Matter on it, which has been a driving force behind the 100-plus days of unrest we’ve had here in Louisville and many of their at-times violent actions directed at police,” Nichols told The Courier Journal in September 2020.

The FOP negotiates police officer contracts with Louisville Metro Government. That contract is being renegotiated this year, but those talks are closed to the public, despite being a more transparent process in other cities.

Kungu Njuguna

Njuguna is a policy strategist with the ACLU of Kentucky. He has been deeply involved with efforts to reduce incarceration and improve conditions at Louisville’s jail, which has seen 15 in-custody deaths since November 2021. He has spoken out against cash bail and the incarceration of people on low-level, non-violent offenses, saying “being held in Metro Corrections should not be a death sentence.”

He is a former prosecutor for the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office and a former attorney for metro government. He is in long-term addiction recovery and has advocated for an end to the “war on drugs,” as well as for the decriminalization of marijuana in the state.

More: Louisville mayor's police chief search using NDAs, other secretive policies

Reach reporter Eleanor McCrary at emcrary@courier-journal.com or on Twitter at @ellie_mccrary. Reach reporter Josh Wood at jwood@courier-journal.com or on Twitter at @JWoodJourno. Reporters Krista Johnson and Olivia Krauth contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville Metro Police chief search: Here's Greenberg's advisory panel