What complaints do civilians file against LMPD? Here's a rundown

A cache of documents provided to The Courier Journal by the activist group The 490 Project provides a rare look at what kinds of complaints citizens have filed against Louisville Metro Police Department officers in recent years.

As part of a settlement to an open records lawsuit against the city, The 490 Project was given hundreds of documents in April related to complaints against LMPD and officer discipline.

Of those documents, The Courier Journal has identified 225 “complaint inquiry forms,” which are filled out when a person contacts LMPD to lodge a complaint, but does not enter the burdensome — and potentially intimidating — formal complaint process that necessitates an investigation.

With the Department of Justice concluding in March that LMPD’s complaint process discouraged formal complaints, the informal complaint documents provide a broader look at the misconduct accusations the 1,000-member-strong force has faced over the last few years.

'An intimidation thing': LMPD's misconduct complaint process leaves citizens discouraged

Officer rudeness, lack of courtesy most common complaint

Of the informal complaints The Courier Journal obtained, one is from 2019, 87 are from 2020, 84 are from 2021 and 45 are from 2022. Eight of the forms have no date on them.

However, it is unclear how many informal complaints were filed in total. The documents all have language instructing that they be destroyed 90 days after their receipt if no formal investigation is ordered by the chief of police. According to the DOJ, LMPD stopped the practice of destroying informal complaints in 2021.

More: Louisville Metro Police Department illegally withholding, destroying records, group says

The most common complaint was that officers were rude or discourteous, which appeared on 56 of the documents.

Many of the documents listed several complaints — for instance, they felt an officer was rude and that their traffic stop was unjustified.

Twenty-five complaint inquiry forms mentioned issues with an investigation, ranging from civilians saying officers were not following up on homicide leads to unhappiness with the outcomes of investigations. Fourteen complaints dealt with how officers took — or failed to take — reports, with civilians complaining officers refused to issue reports or left out important details.

Nine of the complaints involved officer driving, with civilians upset by officers driving recklessly, occasionally hitting vehicles.

Twenty regarded traffic stops, mostly with people feeling officers were not justified in pulling them over. Similarly, 17 people questioned their arrest or charges.

Related: Louisville cop in controversial 2018 traffic stop can't say why driver was pulled from car

Use of force, protest-related incidents also prevalent

More than a tenth of all the complaint inquiry forms involved the use of force by officers, ranging from broken bones and a dog bite to officers grabbing and pushing people.

Several complaints documented officers pointing guns at civilians who were not charged with crimes.

Incidents involving interactions with the police during the protests following the 2020 police killing of Breonna Taylor were the subject of 17 complaints, representing roughly 20% of all informal complaints from 2020 that The Courier Journal received. While some of those complaints were about LMPD officers using tear gas and pepper balls on protesters, others involved allegations of improper searches and detentions.

In one, parents calling the Professional Standards Unit, which is responsible for investigating potential officer misconduct, said their son had been distributing water to protesters in June 2020 when he was detained by police and subjected to strip and cavity searches, but not charged with any crime. It was unclear if any investigation resulted.

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

Seriousness of some incidents downplayed

At times, investigators downplayed the nature of the complaints. For instance, when an officer allegedly threatened a person dating his daughter by saying he could beat them up and get away with it because he was on the force, LMPD listed it as a complaint about “courtesy” instead of a more serious abuse-of-authority violation.

In another complaint about an LMPD officer working off-duty at an area Kroger who followed a woman around asking for her number and allegedly making her uncomfortable because of his position of authority, LMPD described the nature of the complaint as “flirtation while working off-duty.”

However, in most forms reviewed by The Courier Journal, the field for potential policy violations was left blank.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Recent citizen complaints against Louisville Metro Police Department