Mayor's statement on MOU with KSP

Louisville Metro Government sent this bulletin at 11/24/2020 08:01 PM EST

Several of you have asked about the MOU with KSP. The statement below, which you can attribute to Jean Porter, explains the background. Attached is the initial MOU.

 

“We had a written agreement with the Kentucky State Police (KSP) to act as primary investigating agency for Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) critical incidents, including officer-involved shootings – the final signature was on Oct. 20, 2020. (See attached.)

KSP later advised that the agreement was mistakenly signed and needed to be revoked,, pending changes requested by the state Justice Cabinet – but agreed to serve as investigating agency for critical incidents, including officer-involved shootings, that arose before a new agreement could be reached.

This is the first such case to arise since then.

Our goal is to be as transparent as possible, and as we said Monday, our initial agreement with KSP called for keeping to our past practice of releasing body cam footage expeditiously after an incident. In this case, KSP said they could not meet our timeline while protecting the integrity of the investigation, though the Justice Cabinet clarified they anticipate being able to do so within 72 hours of the incident.

(Though the initial MOU would have allowed us to release the body cam footage earlier, KSP advised they need additional time to review the video and gather facts.)

It is important to remember that we pursued this agreement with KSP as a short-term initiative on the path to restoring trust between LMPD and our community.

We will review the process as we go. And as we’ve said from the start, there are many long-term options for moving forward, including the possible creation of a multi-agency task force to work throughout the state, and those options remain on the table.

In the meantime, we continue to work with KSP and the Justice Cabinet on a new MOU. And we trust the Kentucky State Police will conduct a thorough, fair, and impartial investigation regarding the facts surrounding this case.”