Unidentified LMPD officer behind police tape (generic)

LOUISVILLE, Ky (WDRB) -- The union that represents Louisville Metro Police officers is weighing in on departmental reforms that were included in the city's settlement of a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Breonna Taylor. 

River City FOP President Ryan Nichols said he does not oppose the changes, which were announced Tuesday by Mayor Greg Fischer and attorneys for Taylor's family alongside a settlement payment of $12 million. He did, however, take issue with how quickly the settlement was reached. 

"We feel the settlement was made prematurely as the investigations aren't even complete," Nichols said. 

In response to Nichols' concerns, a spokeswoman for Fischer's office, Jean Porter, said, "The civil and criminal cases are separate, and the Mayor views settlement of the civil case as one of many steps necessary to let healing begin in our city."

Some of the measures included in the settlement are already being implemented in LMPD, including that all officers must now wear and use body cameras when serving warrants. Fischer has also ordered a top-to-bottom review of the department by Chicago-based consulting firm, Hillard Heintze. 

River City Fraternal Order of Police President Ryan Nichols

River City Fraternal Order of Police President Ryan Nichols

"Policy changes have been occurring and consistently occur within our department," Nichols said. "If that's police reform, then LMPD is revolutionary in police reform because it is a constant process." 

Additional measures included in the settlement range from requiring a commanding officer to review and approve all search warrants to requiring officers to have their body cameras activated when they make seizures, including when counting money and placing it into an evidence bag. The city also agreed to implement expanded drug testing, an early action warning system to identify officers with red flags and a program encouraging officers to live in low-income communities in order to build stronger relationships. 

"I just don't see how, if all of this was in place for years, how it changes the incident that brought us here," Nichols said. "I guess my point is I don't see that LMPD was in such a bad point, or such a bad place that major reform was required, because as it appears from the facts of this case the police acted within the law and they were executing a legally signed search warrant at the location they were supposed to be."

Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, was shot and killed in March by LMPD officers serving a search warrant at her apartment in connection to a drug investigation. Police have said that Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a single shot from the hallway of the apartment that struck Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the leg when officers burst into the residence. The officers returned fire, striking and killing Taylor in the hallway. Walker claims he and Taylor did not hear the officers announce that they were police and believed someone was breaking into the apartment. 

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has not yet announced if criminal charges will be brought against the officers who fired their weapons during the raid on Taylor's apartment. The Department of Justice in Washington and the FBI also are investigating the case.

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