The Louisville, Kentucky police department whose officers fatally shot Breonna Taylor in 2020 routinely discriminates against Black residents, uses excessive force and conducts illegal searches, the US Justice Department said on Wednesday.
The department’s findings come nearly two years after US Attorney General Merrick Garland launched a civil rights probe into the police department and the Louisville-Jefferson County government to evaluate whether police routinely use unreasonable force and conduct unconstitutional searches.
At a news conference, Garland said the department had reached a “consent decree” with the Louisville police, which will require the use of an independent monitor to oversee policing reforms.
“This conduct is unacceptable. It is heartbreaking. It erodes the community trust necessary for effective policing,” Garland said. “And it is an affront to the people of Louisville, who deserve better.”
Garland said some Louisville police officers had demonstrated disrespect to the people they are sworn to protect, with some insulting people with disabilities and describing Black people as “monkeys.”
Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician, was asleep in bed with her boyfriend on March 13, 2020, when police executing a no-knock warrant burst into her apartment.
Her boyfriend fired at them believing they were intruders and police returned fire, fatally shooting Taylor.
The killing of Taylor, along with other killings in 2020 of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, among others, sparked outrage and galvanized the Black Lives Matter protests that peaked in intensity that summer.
The deaths of Taylor and Floyd prompted the Justice Department in 2021 to open civil rights investigations, known as “pattern or practice” probes, into the police departments in Louisville and Minneapolis to determine if they engaged in systemic abuses.
The results of the Minneapolis review have not yet been released.
In 2021, Garland also announced new policies for federal law enforcement agencies including the FBI, which now prohibit them from conducting “no-knock” entries like the one used against Taylor by local police.
In 2022, former Louisville detective Kelly Goodlett pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges that she helped falsify the search warrant that led to Taylor’s death.
