LMPD reverts to investigating its own officers in cases where they shoot someone

The Louisville Metro Police Department will once again be leading investigations of officers who shoot people in the line of duty, Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel announced Thursday.

The move comes three years after former Mayor Greg Fischer’s administration announced the Kentucky State Police would take over investigations of LMPD shootings in a move aimed at building public trust following the police killing of Breonna Taylor.

Although LMPD will again be investigating its own shootings, Gwinn-Villaroel said the new process ensures “there are third party reviews and safeguards built” in.

LMPD’s Public Integrity Unit will lead all future investigations, Gwinn-Villaroel said, but the completed case files will be turned over to the Commonwealth's Attorney’s Office, KSP and Louisville’s Office of Inspector General for review.

Additionally, she said LMPD is committed to releasing body camera footage within 10 business days of incidents.

Following the announcement, Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey clarified that there may sometimes be “exceptions” to the 10-day period, though he said “those will be few and far between” and LMPD will publicly explain why there is a delay.

“The chief and I inherited unwritten and inconsistently applied policies regarding officer-involved shootings, that like many other policies and practices at LMPD, needed to be strengthened and meet a higher standard of excellence and best practices,” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said Thursday.

In July 2020, as Louisville faced continued protests following the killing of Taylor in a botched LMPD raid in March, Fischer announced that the Kentucky State Police would investigate LMPD shootings going forward.

“The mayor and chief agree that to help restore public trust, the city should move to have an outside entity investigate any future officer-involved shooting,” then-Fischer spokesperson Jean Porter said at the time.

While LMPD had a standard practice of releasing body camera footage within 24 hours of an incident, that timeline slowed after KSP took over. In the first shooting handled by KSP after the change, footage took more than a week to come out.

However, even under the Fischer administration, not all shootings were investigated by KSP.

When officers shot a man in Shawnee Park in July 2022, for instance, LMPD led the investigation, with a KSP spokesperson telling The Courier Journal their agency was dealing with a backlog of cases.

In its scathing March report, the U.S. Department of Justice described LMPD’s investigations into officer shootings as “flawed” and “routinely deficient.”

“Criminal investigations often asked leading questions of both officers and witnesses, at times suggesting possible justifications for the officers and witnesses, at times suggesting possible justifications for the officer’s use of force to interviewees,” the report said.

Under Greenberg’s administration, investigations have been handled by both agencies.

Earlier this month, facing questions after an Aug. 3 incident in Clifton where a man was shot and killed by LMPD, Greenberg described KSP handling LMPD shootings as an "inherited" policy.

Reach reporter Eleanor McCrary at emccrary@courier-journal.com or on Twitter at @ellie_mccrary. Reach reporter Josh Wood at jwood@courier-journal.com or on Twitter at @JWoodJourno.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: LMPD will investigate own officers in cases where they shoot someone