Louisville's civilian review board for LMPD to start reviewing claims this month

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville's inspector general is beginning to look into claims submitted about the city's police department.

Edward Harness will work alongside the city's Civilian Review and Accountability Board to create more transparency and oversight for Louisville Metro Police.

The hiring of Harness and creation of the board followed months of marches and cries for change in the wake of the police shooting of Breonna Taylor in 2020.

"Every community deserves to be policed the way it wants to be policed," Harness said.

The board and most of the staff have undergone months of training and meetings to prepare for reviewing the claims.

The big change for the city of Louisville's residents is that if someone has a complaint about an interaction with an LMPD officer, they no longer have to go to the department to submit a claim.

"A layer of transparency and certainly it will be less intimidating to file a complain because you can come directly to us," Harness said.

Harness told Louisville Metro Council that Chief Erika Shields and the staff have been cooperative so far. But now, the work in his office begins.

As a claim is examined, the inspector general will present the facts of the case and give a recommendation. It is up to the 11-person board to order an investigation.

In the meantime, the inspector general's office will be reviewing department procedures as a whole.

"To have a wider impact, policy is where that's going to happen for creating a change of culture," Harness said. "Investigations are typically individual behavior, so to have a larger impact, policy is really where that will take place."

If that's the step taken, if an LMPD employee is called in during an investigation, Harness says they will be required to answer that request.

"It's in the ordinance and it's also in their collective bargaining agreement because we at the OIG are a recognized governmental entity," Harness said.

But Harness's position does not come with subpoena power. If they need to either speak with a retired officer or obtain business records, he said they will have to look through other avenues, such as going through Louisville Metro Council.

The office is able to review any LMPD body camera footage for investigations, Harness said.

However, state or federal partners, such as U.S. Marshals, are not subject to the same level of oversight.

"So when you mix all of those three, in this case, LMPD would have their standards. U.S. Marshals and KSP would have their standards, and typically the city has chosen to have those standards and that's how they want to be policed," Harness said. "But when you're bringing in outside jurisdictions, they don't have to follow those standards. It can be problematic."

As the board gets ready to consider complaints, the Department of Justice continues their investigation into LMPD.

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