OFFICE OF TH MAYOR
LOUISVILLE. KENTUCKY

FISCHI 
MAYOR

July 26, 2018

Rev. Reginald Barnes, CLOUT Co-President
1113 s. 4th Street
Louisville, KY 40203

Dear Rev. Barnes:

This letter serves as a follow up to our meeting on June 22 and your subsequent letter from June
25. During that meeting, your group raised several issues regarding how the Louisville Metro
Police Department (LMPD) handles those in our community who suffer from mental illness
and/or addiction. You clari?ed those concerns in your most recent letter.

First, let me stress that the Mayor has full con?dence in the men and women of LMPD. Last
year, the department handled 2,274 calls identi?ed as Critical Incident Training (CIT). Out of
those, 2,176 resulted in no force being used. Our department has long been recognized as a
national leader in CIT practices, requiring all of?cers to receive 40 hours of training as a recruit.

While some departments have been satis?ed, LMPD is always looking for ways to improve our
training, policies and procedures. That is why they are instituting some additional training
(known as ICAT) this fall, to give of?cers another tool in how to handle situations in which
people are threatening them with knives and other non-?rearm weapons.

The rigorous review the Mayor called for of training and policy and procedures has
been satisfactorily completed. Additionally, the department?s Public Integrity and Professional
Standards units have reviewed each individual case thoroughly.

We also understand that you disagree with our assessment. However, it would not be proper for
the Mayor to sit down with you to review individual cases, including viewing the body camera
video. I am con?dent the investigators at LMPD who reviewed each of these cases did so
applying the appropriate Standard Operating Procedures.

While we appreciate your interest in this topic and the research you conducted, it appears some
of the conclusmns you have made are based on inaccurate assumptions. You have assumed the
CIT polimes you Cited would be the appropriate charging policies in reviews done of particular
incidents.


LOUISVILLE METRO HALL 527 WEST JEFFERSON STREET LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY 40202 502.574.2003

It is my understanding several members of LMPD have explained to you how the process of
reviewing critical incidents for policy violations occurs. As you have been told, LMPD has a vast
number of policies and procedures. It is also my understanding that those you have cited qualify
more as procedural, rather than policy, setting out expectations of how of?cers should conduct
themselves while interacting with people dealing with particular mental health issues.

However. when an incident occurs the department reviews those cases in terms of policies that
deal with direct actions of of?cers such as those that govern use of force or appropriate action.
Embedded within those policies use of force for example are the elements of de-escalation
and tactics that have been trained through our CIT procedures.

Simply because your review of our cases revealed no violations of IT-speciflc procedures
falsely draws the conclusion those CIT tactics were not reviewed.

You have also called for an ?independent outside party? to conduct an evaluation. yet you reject
the work of the Citizens Commission on Police Accountability. That group was established to
provide just such an outside look at these critical incident cases. Over the years, the Commission
has made several substantive suggestions to improve accountability, and changes by LMPD have
been made as a result.

Additionally, your letter clearly explains your group has conducted its own independent review
and found training courses and policies and procedures on this topic ?to be of high
quality.? Because of that, it is unclear what another evaluation would reveal.

Regarding other concerns related to LMPD, I know that Steve Conrad and his staff have always
been willing to meet with members of CLOUT to address various topics. And there had been a
meeting scheduled to discuss this topic of CIT training and review that you cancelled.

The most appropriate way for you to address your concerns is with Chief Conrad, as he had
previously been willing to accommodate. At this point, I do not believe there is a need for a
meeting with the Mayor or me on these issues.

We appreciate your interest in the safety of our community. You have been very helpful in
getting the Living Room and LEAD programs off the ground. We are committed to the
continuous improvement of training efforts, including de-escalation, and mental illness
and substance abuse issues, and appreciate advocacy efforts on these and other
important issues.

Sincerely,

a?

llen Hesen
Deputy Mayor


LOUISVILLE METRO HALL 527 WEST JEFFERSON STREET LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY 40202 502.574.2003