Louisville Police Department enters consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice

The Louisville Metro Police Department has entered into a five-year consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice following allegations of civil rights violations and misconduct. 

The decree requires the police department to focus on de-escalation, work to “reduce unlawful racial disparities in enforcement,” provide training and support to police officers and more.  

Kristen Clarke, an assistant attorney general for civil rights with the Justice Department, said during a Thursday news conference in Louisville that the “court enforceable” decree addresses federal findings that officers “engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the constitution and federal law.” 

“We found that police used excessive force, unlawfully executed search warrants without knocking and announcing, carried out unlawful stops, searches and arrests, engaged in discriminatory policing with respect to low-level traffic stops and other offenses, violated the rights of people engaged in protected speech during demonstrations critical of policing and treated people with behavioral health disabilities unlawfully,” Clarke said. “This conduct harmed community members and undermined public trust in law enforcement that is essential for public safety.”  

The 248-page decree requires LMPD to “collect and analyze data to improve as an agency and to hold officers and Louisville Metro employees accountable,” according to the DOJ. It also requires the department to report its progress to the public and  “involve the community throughout the implementation process.” 

The city says it will have a dashboard for the public to monitor the department’s progress in implementing the decree. 

An independent monitor will keep tabs on the decree and department and will “regularly report to the public and the court.” Louisville will “soon” post the monitor position, and the DOJ will vet applicants, according to Mayor Craig Greenberg’s office. 

In 2025, Chief Paul Humphrey will attend community meetings with Louisville residents, Greenberg said. 

“I believe that having an independent monitor gives us an opportunity to have the excellence of our work confirmed for the community,” Humphrey said. “This has to be more than just words on the page. It’s a promise to our officers and our professional staff that we are going to lead them and support them the right way, without fail. It is a promise to our community that we are responsive to their needs, and we will remain committed to creating an agency that values self improvement.”

Greenberg praised the department for the “positive changes” that “continue to happen every day” in its ranks. 

“We are already well on our way to implementing many of the agreements in the consent decree,” Greenberg said. “The Department of Justice saw the action we’ve already taken and our commitment to aggressively implement police reform.” 

What does the consent decree require? 

Under the decree, the department is required to undergo a series of reforms. Those include: 

• LMPD officers must use appropriate de-escalation techniques and must attempt to resolve incidents without force when possible. Police must use force “in a manner that is reasonable, necessary and proportional to the threat presented.” Every use of force must also be investigated. 
• When applying for residential search warrants, police must articulate specific, individualized and accurate facts that establish probable cause for everything to be searched and seized. Police officers must then execute those warrants using “safe and lawful tactics.” 
• Police officers must conduct stops, frisks, searches and arrests “in a manner that protects people’s rights.” 
• Police must enforce the law “fairly and impartially, providing equal protection of the law for all people in Louisville and taking steps to reduce unlawful racial disparities in enforcement.”  
• Police must respect the First Amendment rights of everyone, including people’s right to criticize and protest police conduct and to observe and record officers on the job. 
• The city and LMPD must send non-law enforcement deflection teams to situations involving people in behavioral health crises where police involvement isn’t needed. 
• Police must respond to and investigate sexual assault, domestic violence and sexual misconduct “in a thorough, timely, trauma-informed and bias-free manner.”  
• The city must operate a non-police outreach team that can respond to certain situations involving unhoused individuals where police are not required. 
• LMPD must investigate allegations of officer misconduct “fully, fairly and efficiently” and hold police officers accountable for misconduct.

“This decree will not create change on its own,” Humphrey said. “It requires people. The dedicated men and women of LMPD are the driving force behind progress. With hard work combined with strong leadership and community collaboration, we will succeed.”  

Recent department controversies 

??The department has had six leaders since 2020. That year, following the police killing of Breonna Taylor, Louisville saw months of protests. Taylor was a 26-year-old Black woman who police fatally shot while serving a no-knock warrant. 

In 2022, two LMPD officers received federal prison sentences for “throwing slushies and drinks from unmarked squad cars at residents in the West End,” the Louisville Courier Journal reported. 

More recently, police arrested professional golfer Scottie Scheffler during the PGA Championship in a highly publicized incident in June 2024. Those charges were later dismissed.

In August, the DOJ released a separate report saying it had “reasonable cause” to believe Kentucky is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act in Jefferson County. That finding came after two years of investigation “focused on whether Kentucky subjects adults with serious mental illness to unnecessary segregation in psychiatric hospitals in Louisville.” 

Jefferson County, that report said, relies too heavily on psychiatric hospitalizations, police and detention that could be avoided with community-based mental health services, which it also does not adequately connect people with following hospitalization. 

The City of Louisville earlier this year began negotiating the consent decree with the DOJ to correct civil rights violations by LMPD.