Garland outlines long list of violations found in the DOJ's review of Louisville Police
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Louisville Police have pattern of excessive force and discrimination, DOJ says

By Adrienne Vogt, Mike Hayes, Aditi Sangal and Elise Hammond, CNN

Updated 4:10 p.m. ET, March 8, 2023
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11:52 a.m. ET, March 8, 2023

Garland outlines long list of violations found in the DOJ's review of Louisville Police

Attorney General Merrick Garland identified a number of violations that a Justice Department review found about the Louisville Police Department.

According to Garland, they include:

  • A pattern or practice of conduct that violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution
  • Engaging in conduct that violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Safe Streets Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act
  • Using excessive force, including unjustified neck restraints, unreasonable use of police dogs and Tasers
  • Searches based on invalid warrants
  • Unlawfully executed warrants without knocking and announcing 
  • Unlawful stops, searches, detainments and arrests
  • Unlawful discrimination against Black people
  • Violations the rights of people engaged in protected speech critical of policing 
  • Discrimination of people with behavioral health disabilities when responding to them in crisis
  • Deficiencies in responding to and investigating domestic violence and sexual assault
1:51 p.m. ET, March 8, 2023

Garland details aggressive behavior and racial epithets used by Louisville police

Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a press conference on the Justice Department's findings of the civil rights investigation into the Louisville Metro Police Department and Louisville Metro Government on March 8 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a press conference on the Justice Department's findings of the civil rights investigation into the Louisville Metro Police Department and Louisville Metro Government on March 8 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Luke Sharrett/AFP/Getty Images)

Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department found Louisville police officers have discriminated against Black people in a review launched after the death of Breonna Taylor.

Garland said that the Louisville Police Department "relied heavily on pretextual traffic stops in Black neighborhoods."

"In these stops, officers use the pretense for making a stop for minor traffic offense in order to investigate for other crimes," he continued.

Garland documented aggressive behavior and racial epithets used by police toward residents.

"Some officers have demonstrated disrespect for the people they are sworn to protect. Some have videotaped themselves throwing drinks at pedestrians from their cars, insulted people with disabilities and called Black people 'monkeys,' 'animal' and 'boy.' This conduct is unacceptable. It is heartbreaking. It erodes the community trust necessary for effective policing and it is an affront to the vast majority of officers who put their lives on the line every day to serve Louisville with honor, and it is an affront to the people of Louisville who deserve better," he said.

Watch here:

12:40 p.m. ET, March 8, 2023

Breonna Taylor was killed during botched raid in 2020

From CNN's Theresa Waldrop, Eliott C. McLaughlin, Sonia Moghe and Hannah Rabinowitz

A photo of Breonna Taylor is seen among other photos of women who have lost their lives as a result of violence during the 2nd Annual Defend Black Women March on July 30, 2022, in Washington, DC.
A photo of Breonna Taylor is seen among other photos of women who have lost their lives as a result of violence during the 2nd Annual Defend Black Women March on July 30, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Frontline Action Hub)

The death of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, an emergency room technician — along with that of George Floyd and others — sparked nationwide protests in 2020, leading to changes in policing policy and laws.

Here's what happened during the botched raid that caused her death:

On March 12, 2020, a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge approved five search warrants for locations linked to Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, a convicted felon suspected of supplying a local drug house. One of those locations was Taylor’s residence.

In the early hours of March 13, ex-detective Brett Hankison and other officers executed a warrant at Taylor’s apartment. Taylor was in bed with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker III, when the officers announced their presence and then battered down the front door.

Taylor and Walker yelled to ask who was at the door but got no response, Walker said afterward. Thinking they were intruders, Walker grabbed a gun he legally owned and fired a shot when the officers broke through the door.

That triggered a volley of fire from the officers. Taylor, who was standing in a hallway with Walker, was shot multiple times. Walker was not injured.

“Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend,” Walker said in a 911 call.

Hankison had been standing outside the apartment and is accused of blindly firing through a door and a window. His bullets entered a neighboring apartment, where a pregnant woman, a man and a child were home, according to the state attorney general.

None of the police officers at the raid were wearing body cameras, and there is no video of the night Taylor bled to death in her hallway.

11:25 a.m. ET, March 8, 2023

Justice Department finds Louisville police department uses "aggressive style," especially against Black people

From CNN's Hannah Rabinowitz

The Justice Department issued a scathing report on the Louisville Police Department after a nearly two-year review launched in the wake of the botched raid that killed Breonna Taylor.

The review, which investigated whether the Louisville Police Department used excessive force, found that officers used unreasonable tactics including unjustified neck restraints, police dogs and tasers.

The report also found that the police department executes search warrants without knocking and announcing.

“For years, LMPD has practiced an aggressive style of policing that it deploys selectively, especially against Black people, but also against vulnerable people throughout the city,” the report said. 

The Justice Department found that “police officers’ forcible and violent entry into a person’s home strikes at the heart of the constitutional protection against unreasonable government intrusion.”

“But Louisville Metro’s and LMPD’s unlawful conduct did not start in 2020. As an LMPD leader told us shortly after we opened this investigation, ‘Breonna Taylor was a symptom of problems that we have had for years,’” the report said. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a so-called pattern or practices review of the Louisville department in 2021, one year after Taylor’s death and the intense scrutiny that followed.

Garland announced the results of that review in Louisville on Wednesday with Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg and interim LMPD Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel.