What Are Some Real Solutions?

CAPA believes that the following specific changes must be made to have real change that will benefit everyone. These things must be done on different levels by people who work in the public service sector: the Metro Police Department, the Metro Council, the Mayor, the state legislature and the business community. The following list is a result of a lot of national and local research. It is also a result of input from 1000s of citizens in Louisville through door-to-door contact, forums, speakouts and demonstrations. It is the result of 3 years of discussions and listening to personal stories of victims of abuse from the police and the criminal justice system.

1. Civilian Police Review Board

1. Must be fully funded.
2. Must have subpoena power.
3. Office of Independent Investigation.
4. Addresses all abuse, shootings and other police misconduct-not just deaths.
5. Power to fire.
6. All members of the review board must be approved by the Metro Council including the chair.
7. Review Board investigations need to occur at the same time as internal investigations, not after the fact.

2. Use of force policy for Louisville Metro Police Department

1. No more shooting at moving vehicles unless returning fire.
2. No more shooting at fleeing misdemeanor or felony suspects.
3. No more plain-clothes apprehension or traffic stops except in emergency.
4. No entry to residence by plain-clothes officers without uniformed backup.
5. No use of deadly force unless all methods of non-lethal force are exhausted.
6. No use of force for crowd control of peaceful crowds, either lethal or non-lethal.
7. No more high speed police chases in city streets.
8. Any officer involved in use of force incident must undergo drug/alcohol testing.
9. No use of deadly force against persons whose conduct is injurious only to themselves.

3. No more racial profiling by police department

1. All stops must be for a specific reason i.e. a good just cause.
2. No stops or apprehension based on clothing, hairstyle, vehicle type, etc.

4. Increased training for all police officers

1. All officers must undergo training by advocates for the mentally ill.
2. All officers must undergo more thorough and up-to-date training in non-lethal uses of force.
3. All officers must undergo diversity training by members of community organizations that include African American, Latino, gay, lesbian, bi, transgender, youth, and other minority communities.

5. Recruitment, Hiring and Promotion within Louisville Metro Police Department

1. More extensive and strenuous psychological screening of potential recruits.
2. Review obstacles and remedy obstacles to minority promotion to command structure positions.
3. Recruit out of state, as needed, to assure adequate minority representation.
4. All recruitment classes should have a goal of recruiting over 20% African-Americans.

6. Implement community oriented policing (COP)

1. Need a fully funded office to coordinate community oriented policing.
2. A full audit of allocation of COP funds: Present to the community a report that details how all the money the city and county have received from the federal government and other sources for COP has been spent and what results they have achieved. Outline how much money has been requested this fiscal year and how it will be spent.
3. Develop partnership with social service agencies like Seven Counties Services, drug rehabilitation agencies, and the Kent School of Social Work in order to further better preventative policing.

7. Drug Court and drug rehabilitation

1. Aggressively lobby the state to reallocate funding from law enforcement to rehabilitation.
2. County prosecutors put increased emphasis on drug court and not incarceration.
3. Aggressively lobby the state to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug crimes.
4. More home incarceration for non-violent crimes that are drug or economically oriented.
5. Decentralized, neighborhood based drug rehabilitation programs.

8. Meaningful economic opportunity for low income areas/residents

1. No renewal of "Enterprise Zones" that do not require the hiring of local residents in the zones.
2. Introduce and implement ordinances that would give low-income Louisvillians and city workers better wages, tax incentives, working conditions and other opportunities.
3. Make more low interest money available for small businesses in low income neighborhoods.
4. Mandate a minimum number of minority contractors on all downtown construction sites.
5. Major projects done by metro city government should be done by joint ventures with African American/minority participation to ensure impact minority participation.
6. Private construction projects must utilize African American/ minority contractors in joint ventures. Phase II of Churchill Downs should have this type of joint venture process.

Protest at police headquarters in the wake of the shooting of James Taylor