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WASHINGTON—The Justice Department will open a broad civil-rights investigation into the practices of the Louisville Metro Police Department, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday, more than a year after the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in her home during a botched police raid.
The inquiry will examine whether Louisville officers routinely violate citizens’ rights, including by illegally executing search warrants on private homes, Mr. Garland said. It will also seek to determine whether officers use excessive force, discriminate based on race and engage in unconstitutional stops, arrests and seizures.
“Investigators will seek input from every corner of Louisville,†Mr. Garland said.
It is the second such probe the Justice Department has launched in a week, as the agency takes a more active role in overhauling local police agencies.
Mr. Garland on Wednesday said the department would examine whether Minneapolis police engage in excessive force and discriminatory practices, a day after a state jury convicted Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd, whose killing, following Ms. Taylor’s, touched off nationwide protests over policing and racial injustice.
“As someone who truly believes in police reform and doing things differently, which will only help us as a profession in the long run, I think it’s a good thing,†Louisville Police Chief Erika Shields said at a Monday press conference. Chief Shields, who previously served as chief in Atlanta, was hired earlier this year to overhaul Louisville’s police department.
Ms. Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency-medical technician in Kentucky’s largest city, was asleep with her boyfriend in March 2020 when police, who had secured a no-knock warrant to search her home in connection with a drug case, forced entry into her apartment. Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend, thinking the officers were intruders, shot at them. Three Louisville officers responded by firing more than 30 bullets, at least six of which hit Ms. Taylor, one of them fatally, officials have said.
Three officers were fired in connection with Ms. Taylor’s case, and one of them was indicted on a charge of allegedly endangering Ms. Taylor’s neighbors by firing recklessly during the police encounter.
The former detective, Brett Hankison, has pleaded not guilty.
No one has been charged in connection with Ms. Taylor’s death, which put a spotlight on the city’s police tactics.
The new probe, known as a pattern-or-practice inquiry, is separate from a more specific federal investigation into Ms. Taylor’s killing. In addition to studying officers’ use of force, the Justice Department will seek to determine whether they discriminate based on race or fail to provide public services to those with disabilities, Mr. Garland said. Officials from the department’s civil-rights division and the local U.S. attorney’s office will review the police department’s policies and training and examine whether officers are effectively held accountable.
Mr. Garland last week told law-enforcement groups to expect more such investigations, which he characterized as a return to the kind of oversight of local police the Trump administration sharply curtailed.
Pattern-or-practice investigations can take years, as Justice Department lawyers interview local officials, go on ride-alongs with officers, talk with residents and pore over documents, from training manuals to court files, before issuing a public report. They can end in a legal settlement known as a consent decree that can force a city to make major changes.
“Those investigations, and the recommendations and actions that ensue, do not only protect individuals’ civil rights, they also assist police departments in developing measures to increase transparency and accountability,†Mr. Garland said Monday. “Those qualities are necessary to building trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.â€
An independent review of Louisville’s police department found earlier this year that its relations with Black residents were damaged and that morale among officers was low.
Louisville is already implementing changes to meet the terms of its $12 million settlement with Ms. Taylor’s family. They include a new early-warning system that will track citizen complaints, use-of-force incidents and internal-affairs probes for each officer.
“We commend those measures and our investigation will take them into account,†Mr. Garland said.
Write to Sadie Gurman at sadie.gurman@wsj.com and Zusha Elinson at zusha.elinson@wsj.com
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