The Louisville Metro Police Department and the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro government engaged in a pattern of unconstitutional behavior by routinely using excessive force, conducting searches based on invalid warrants and unlawfully discriminating against Black people in enforcement activities, a wide-ranging federal investigation found.
The review, conducted by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, also found that police violate the rights of those “engaged in protected speech critical of policing” and that some officers used racial slurs about Black citizens. The city has reached an agreement in principle to resolve the constitutional violations found by federal investigators, the Justice Department said.
The report is similar to those issued in several other cities, including Ferguson, Missouri, after the death of Michael Brown in 2014. The Trump administration backed away from federal investigations into unconstitutional policing, and the investigation into Louisville was announced early in the Biden administration, in 2021.
The Louisville investigation came in the aftermath of the botched police raid that led to the death of Breonna Taylor in March 2020. Four Louisville officers were federally charged in August in connection with Taylor’s death. DOJ’s pattern-and-practice investigation was not a criminal probe, but rather looked at broader, systemic issues in the police department.