LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- More than half a year after city leaders created a board that will task ordinary people with reviewing police policies and cases of potential misconduct at the Louisville Metro Police Department, the key position of inspector general — which will guide that board — remains unfilled.
Also, as city leaders continue to search for an inspector general, a job candidate for that position says Mayor Greg Fischer has too much influence on the process of picking one.
In November 2020, after months of marches and cries for change, Louisville leaders passed an ordinance creating a Civilian Review & Accountability Board, a board of 11 ordinary people who will provide an independent layer of oversight and accountability on the Louisville Metro Police Department. According to those who created the civilian board, which was seated in March 2021, members will influence police policies and review alleged misconduct.
The 11 members will guide an independent inspector general in reviewing those matters.
According to a November 2020 press release from Fischer's office, the inspector general will have the authority to investigate alleged incidents involving any members of the LMPD and any member of the public. His or her duties may include "examining patterns and practices with LMPD; reviewing policies, procedures and operations within LMPD; providing recommendations on improving operations to the Mayor and Metro Council; investigating complaints; and other operations as needed."
In December 2020, the city began accepting applications for inspector general, and according to minutes from a May meeting of the civilian panel, the city got 60 applications for inspector general which were "reviewed and narrowed to 25 candidates."
However, the job posting was recently re-opened for more candidates.
According to the meeting minutes, civilian review board members made changes to the job description and decided to "repost the position to gain additional applicants." The opening is now slated to close in mid-July.
Matthew Lemme, a local attorney headquartered in New Albany, applied for the position back in December and felt his background as a prosecutor and defense attorney would make him a good fit.
"This may be the most important job ever," he said. "The delay is curious. The delay is shocking. The lack of urgency is alarming."
But Lemme contacted WDRB News with a bigger concern about the process of selecting the inspector general. He feels Fischer's Administration has too much influence over it.
The ordinance creating the Civilian Review & Accountability Board and Inspector General stipulates it's the mayor job to "establish" a search committee "to seek qualified applicants." The same ordinance also requires a civilian review board member and a member of Metro Council be part of that search committee.
The current search committee does include a council member, Paula McCraney, D-7. However, it also includes three members with ties to Fischer's office. Those members include Matt Golden, the Fischer Administration's Chief of Public Services, and Ernestine Booth-Henry, the Fischer Administration's Human Resources Director.
Additionally, the civilian review board member appointed to the search committee, Kellie Watson, held previous posts with the Fischer Administration.
To Lemme, the make-up of the search committee gives the wrong impression, since the inspector general might be tasked with holding LMPD accountable and scrutinizing the mayor's leadership of the department.
"This position that was supposed to not be beholden to anyone and wasn't to be ultimately controlled by anyone — and maybe, ultimately they won't be — but the process is certainly controlled by one entity, it seems," he said.
He hopes changes can be made that would — in his opinion — lend the process more transparency and credibility.
"If the process continues as it exists, I think it will be questioned," Lemme said. "Civilians are watching, I think the police are watching, and everybody's entitled to answers."
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Fischer maintains that the process does include numerous "checks and balances" that prevent the mayor from having "total influence" over the selection of inspector general, since McCraney and Watson also serve on the search committee.
While the selection committee is tasked with interviewing and selecting the applicants for inspector general, the mayor will ultimately appoint one from a list of three the committee submits to him. The spokesperson for Fischer also argued that checks and balances are in place, since any inspector general candidate appointed by the mayor must ultimately be approved by Metro Council.
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