LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Since 2020, the Louisville Metro Police Department has had six different people lead it. It began with Chief Steve Conrad and now the department is being led by interim chief Paul Humphrey.
During the past four years, LMPD has had to handle several high profile events and investigations. COVID-19 hit in 2020 about the same time Breonna Taylor was shot and killed. Protests followed. On June 1, 2020, less than three months after Taylor's death, LMPD and the National Guard were involved in a restaurant shooting that killed David McAtee. McAtee was killed by a National Guard bullet.
In March 2023, the Department of Justice released a report and found Louisville police have engaged in a pattern of violating constitutional rights following an investigation prompted by the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor.
Mayor Craig Greenberg, D-Louisville, said he was especially disappointed about the history of discrimination found in the report. “Part of what’s so difficult about the report to read, to digest, is that some of the worst transgressions were directed at members of our Black and Brown communities, women and their children,” he said.
“That’s unacceptable. There’s no excuse for any of that,” he added.
On June 12, 2024, Greenberg suspended chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel for her handling of a sexual harassment complaint involving a pair of LMPD officers.
Here is a look at the timeline of police chiefs for LMPD.