LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville Metro Police Chief Yvette Gentry inherited a department that was under attack, understaffed and overworked.
Next week, she'll turn over her title to the new LMPD chief, Erika Shields. On Friday, Gentry sat down with WDRB News to talk about her short time as interim chief.
"I knew I had a short period of time, but you gotta be mindful that six years of being gone is a long time," she said.
In October, Gentry came out of retirement and was sworn in as chief of LMPD.
"I was just trying to get a feel for everything," she said.
Since then, Gentry has been busy, working seven days a week, addressing morale and other issues facing the department and city.
"I went to all the departments and said, 'Give me somethings I can work on,'" she said. "And they talked about things that mattered to them. They lost time during the emergency orders, where they couldn't take vacation time and days. That was very important to them."
Gentry also addressed controversial issues, including the Breonna Taylor case, which led to months of protests and violence on the streets of Louisville. After a decorated, 20-plus-year career in law enforcement and retiring as an assistant chief, Gentry was forced to watch the clash between protesters and police as a civilian.
"It worried me enough for me to come back," she said.
Gentry can't talk about the Taylor case but recently terminated two of the officers involved in the raid. She hopes people on both sides do a better job of listening and communicating going forward.
"Don't let the temperature get so high that we just become so angry and become reckless with each other," she said.
Gentry fears that kind of behavior could lead to a repeat of the violence that led to boarded-up windows in downtown Louisville or what we saw in Washington last week.
"When tensions get that high, and you get that angry, there are going to be no winners," she said. "Civilians died in that. Officers died in that."
As interim chief, Gentry didn't want to make any major changes, but she worked with the department's command staff to address the ongoing violent crime in the city.
"I tried to increase the level of support they had on the street by putting a night chief in every night so they'd have a major or above out there," she said. "Taking the shootings away from homicide so they could improve their clearance rate and be able to give justice to some of these families."
Earlier this month, Shields was hired, but Gentry was not part of that process.
"I stayed out of that completely, and I didn't think it was appropriate," Gentry said.
Despite a unanimous vote by a search committee, there's been some internal questions and concerns from officers.
"They have a lot of angst about what the next leadership is going to look like," Gentry said. "I just told them to stay focused, you know, serve ethically like you do every day."
And there's also been some public criticism over the mayor's choice.
"We have got to tackle some issues facing our community, and she's got to earn the trust of everyone," Gentry said. "But she has to be given a chance to do that."
Gentry said the men and women of the department also had questions and concerns about another pressing issue.
"They wanted to know when they were going to get a decent wage and when they were going to get their back pay," she said.
Gentry said officers were scheduled to be compensated Friday and hopes that will help improve morale.
As she leaves the department for a second retirement, Gentry expressed her love for the community and the men and women in uniform and hopes people will do more talking and listening rather than fighting.
"We have got to come to a place where people feel enough confidence in the leadership of this police department and they're going to do what's right," she said. "And the officers have to know what the expectations of them are and feel supported as well."
As a black woman who spent more than two decades in law enforcement, Gentry understands some of the anger from the community but also from police.
"The level of danger out here is tough," she said. "So when I'm out here, and people are shooting at my officers, I hate it."
Gentry said her return to the department has had ups and some downs.
"I have been pressured and bullied from just about everybody under the sun in these last one hundred days," she said. "But I have also had enough love from the people I work with to balance it out."
Since the departure of Chief Steve Conrad, Gentry has received a lot of pressure from the community and within the department to apply for the top job. But she said that was never in her plans and admits most of her family felt the same.
Gentry's last day is Monday. She plans to take some time off and then return to her nonprofit jobs with Metro United Way and The Rajon Rondo Foundation, which has philanthropic roots in Louisville, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago and New Orleans. The foundation supports and mentors young people by exposing them to the world outside of their immediate surroundings. Throughout the pandemic, Gentry and Rondo, who plays for the Atlanta Hawks, were also on the frontlines as the foundations bought groceries and toys to help local families.
Gentry said the nonprofit work is her new love and passion.
Shields will be sworn in Tuesday.
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