The Exemplary LMPD
Consent Decree Motion, Post 8- Lies, damned lies, and statistics that expose the Lie
Judge Beaton’s specific questions to the DOJ and the Metro regarding the “Ongoing Pattern and Practice” of LMPD Use of Excessive Force were:
a) How many instances of excessive lethal force did the 2023 Findings reveal? b) How many instances of excessive non-lethal force did the 2023 Findings reveal? And what is the ratio of excessive force to lawful force during the same time period?
Though the USA Plaintiff prosecutors refused to submit their proof, the Louisville Metro had its own statistics which were provided to Judge Beaton1 by County Attorney Mike O’Connell.
Let’s start a drumroll here.
For about a quarter century before the LMPD came under inspection by the Merrick Garland DOJ, it had (and still has) a Professional Standards Unit (PSU) to investigate officer misconduct and a Public Integrity Unit (PIU) to investigate criminal misconduct by police officers.
A PIU case may be initiated by the LMPD Chief, a police officer, Metro government or other governmental entity, or a citizen.
Any use of force greater than ‘minimal force’ is classified as Reportable which is defined in four levels.
Each use of Reportable Force requires the completion of an AIR (Administrative Incident Report) through BlueTeam (a link on the police intranet).
The highest level—Level 4— incidents are investigated by the PIU for any criminal allegations and by the PSU for any policy violations.
For the pattern-and-practice investigation time period, from 2016 to 2021, there were 2,288 documented uses of force by LMPD, and of those, 213 PSU investigations were carried out, and of the 213, 41 involved deadly force and 172, non-lethal.
There were three incidents in six years where violations of the use of deadly force policy were sustained2; however, violation of policy does not necessarily mean that a law was broken. Nonlethal force that violated policy was reported in 54 incidents.
As shown in the chart below, the number of calls for service for our police ranged from a low of 353,332 in 2023 (the year the DOJ Findings report was issued) to a high of 541,962 in 2018. In that year there were 1250 officers, whereas in 2023 there were 1062 which perhaps is why there were fewer service calls.
When a call comes in, the MetroSafe Center determines whether to send law enforcement or EMS, etc. In the chart, for BlueTeam Entries, we see a high of 481 incidents in 2017 and a low of 233 in 2023.
The percentage of ‘Use of Force-Calls for Service’ is calculated by dividing the number of BlueTeam entries by the number of Calls for Service, so, for example, in 2023, the Use of Force incidents represented 0.06594% of the Calls for Service.
The percentage of violations —three (see footnote 2)— of Use of Force incidents (2,288) over six years, is .001312, or 0.1%, and of the 41 excessive-use incidents, the percentage is 7.3%.
—Drumroll stops, cymbals clash—
Nevertheless, Attorney O’Connell concluded:
Louisville Metro respectfully submits the foregoing in response to the Court’s Order of January 18, 2025 and requests that the Court grant the Joint Motion for Entry of the Consent Decree.
In other words, please rubber-stamp the CD. Please spend millions on the DOJ-recommended policies and procedures and court expense to monitor our LMPD.
Go figure.
The Biden DOJ attorneys cited only 63 incidents as evidence of the conclusions in their 248-page report, that the LMPD must revise their policies about Use of Force and in six other areas.
AN ASIDE: Mike O’Connell, a Democrat, announced his intention not to run for reelection …and has endorsed a successor. O’Connell, 75, said in an interview with LPM News that he wants to leave office while he can still manage the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office efficiently. He said he feels the office is set up for success.
There are no Republicans running for County Attorney this year.
The information in this post is found in Document 82 of Case 00722, filed on 2-18-25 on PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records).
Exact quote from O’Connell document: “For the pattern-and-practice investigation time period, there were a total of 2,288 documented uses of force by LMPD. Of those incidents, 213 PSU investigations were conducted for alleged use of force policy violations. Of those 213 PSU investigations, 41 were incidents involving the use of deadly force and 172 incidents involving use of non-lethal force. Of those investigations, three included incidents in which violations of the use of deadly force policy were sustained and 54 included incidents in which violations of the non-lethal use of force policies were sustained.” (page 7)
An alleged policy violation is found to be “sustained” when there is sufficient evidence to prove the allegation. Beaton’s request for ‘excessive lethal force’ incidents is found in 3 violations that were sustained by an investigation. These 3 were logged over a six-year period of time. So, half of an incident per year.