Louisville police engaged in unlawful practices that violated residents’ civil rights and discriminated against Black people and people with behavioral health deficiencies, the US justice department concluded on Wednesday following an investigation prompted by the killing of Breonna Taylor in a botched police raid in 2020.
The city of Louisville agreed to a consent decree to reform policing practices.
In March 2020, Taylor, 26 and an emergency medical technician studying to become a nurse, was roused from sleep by police who entered her apartment using a battering ram. Thinking it was a home invasion, Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a gun once. Police opened fire, killing Taylor.
The no-knock warrant was part of a narcotics investigation. No drugs were found. A grand jury declined to charge officers. Civil rights charges were brought against four. The city agreed to pay $2m to settle suits brought by Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker.
Coming shortly before the killing of George Floyd by officers in Minneapolis, Taylor’s death fueled protests against police brutality and for systemic reform.
The justice department’s civil rights division has now concluded that Louisville police and city government “failed to adequately protect and serve and discriminated against Black people” and deployed “unjustified neck restraints” and “unreasonable use of police dogs and Tasers”.
Announcing the findings, the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, said officers had “demonstrated disrespect for the people they were sworn to protect”, some videotaping themselves “throwing drinks at pedestrians from their cars, insulting people with disabilities, and calling Black people, ‘monkeys, animal and boy’.
“This conduct is unacceptable. It’s heartbreaking,” Garland said, in Louisville. “It erodes the community trust necessary for effective policing … it is an affront to the people of Louisville who deserve better.”
Police routinely engaged in “unjustified” no-knock warrants that defied federal law and put “ordinary citizens in harm’s way”, said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for civil rights, adding that officers also sought “overly broad” warrants that swept up people with remote connections to suspected criminal activity.
Louisville police disproportionately stopped Black drivers for minor traffic offenses. Black drivers were twice as likely to be cited for having a taillight out as white drivers, four times as likely to be cited for improperly tinted windows and nearly five times as likely to be cited for improper tags.
Black drivers were also 50% more likely to be searched when stopped. Louisville police charged Black drivers at higher rates.