LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Ever since Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers raided Breonna Taylor's home, there's been a focus on search warrants that enable police to enter homes and businesses. Attorney General Daniel Cameron, R-Ky., has created a task force to examine search warrants in Kentucky. The 18 members have been named. Several members are optimistic that change to the process can come from their work, while others are skeptical.


What You Need To Know

  • The Attorney General's Search Warrant Task Force will examine search warrants in Kentucky

  • This stems from the death of Breonna Taylor, who was killed by police in March 2020

  • The 18 task force members have been named

  • Because 8 of them are currently or formerly tied to law enforcement, at least one Louisville attorney is doubtful about the task force's objectiveness; however, one member said police need to be at the table

Ramon McGee is selected by Cameron to work on the task force. He will represent the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). 

"Members of the community don't really understand much about search warrants other than when it's executed," McGee said, which is why he's going to push for more transparency on the warrant process.

He also wants judges to hear from community members that search warrants affect, "So they understand exactly what the relationship with these communities with law enforcement is, how it is that law enforcement approaches these communities."

Here are the names Cameron's office announced last week: 

  • Denise Bentley: former Democrat Louisville Metro councilwoman, legislative assistant to Metro Council District 5, representing citizens at-large
  • Lt. Bryan Bogard, Covington Police Department, representing the Kentucky Fraternal Order of Police
  • Col. Phillip Burnett, Jr., commissioner, Kentucky State Police
  • Judge Foster Cotthoff, district court judge, 3rd Judicial District, Christian County, representing the Kentucky Court of Justice
  • Judge Charles Cunningham, circuit court judge, 30th Judicial Circuit, Jefferson County, representing the Kentucky Court of Justice
  • Jeff Gregory, mayor, City of Elizabethtown, representing the Kentucky League of Cities
  • Nicolai Jilek, commissioner, Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice Training
  • Rep. Ed Massey, chair, House Judiciary Committee
  • Ramon McGee, attorney, The Law Office of Ramon McGee, representing the Kentucky Conference of the NAACP
  • Chief Joe Monroe, University of Kentucky Police Department, representing the Kentucky Association of Chiefs of Police
  • David L. Nicholson, circuit court clerk, Jefferson County, representing the Kentucky Association of Counties
  • Damon Preston, public advocate
  • Joseph Ross, county attorney, Logan County, representing the Kentucky County Attorneys Association
  • Rob Sanders, commonwealth’s attorney, 16th Judicial Circuit, representing the Kentucky Commonwealth’s Attorneys’ Association
  • Sheriff Walt Sholar, Bullitt County Sheriff’s Office, representing the Kentucky Sheriffs’ Association
  • Detective Elizabeth Thomas, Lexington Police Department, representing the Kentucky Narcotics Officers Association
  • Sen. Whitney Westerfield, chair, Senate Judiciary Committee
  • George Wright, professor, senior adviser to the president, and vice president for institutional diversity, University of Kentucky, representing citizens at-large

"The group represents every aspect of the search warrant process," Cameron's spokesperson Elizabeth Kuhn told Spectrum News 1.

Defense Attorney Ted Shouse, who's been pushing for search warrant reforms, is skeptical of the task force because of this list of names, there are eight people currently or formerly tied with law enforcement. 

"He stacked the deck," Shouse said. He also points out, there's an end date on meetings set for Dec. 31. There's not yet a start date. 

Shouse, who does pro bono work for The Bail Project, has been vocal about the changes to the warrant process he wants to see. That is for judges to be randomly assigned to the warrants they either approve or deny, for conversations between judges and police officers to be recorded and for a record of rejected warrants to be kept. 

"Randomization and recording are just signs of respect for the people whose homes are being broken into and searched. I think we owe our fellow residents that respect," said Shouse. 

Member Denise Bentley feels there's no need for skepticism and that work will get done. Bentley told Spectrum News 1, "I think that police need to be at the table."

"There will be an end game, and there will be results. If not, I will withdraw my support of the task force because I have better things to do with my time," she pledged.