Former Atlanta police chief Erika Shields will head the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department, which gained national prominence last year after Breonna Taylor’s death.
“I am honored to be selected for this important position at this important time,” Shields said in a statement on Wednesday.
“I recognize that there is a lot of healing that needs to happen in policing in general, and that the LMPD is at a crossroads. But I think there is also an opportunity to do this right here in Louisville, and to create a model for other cities to follow. . ”
The announcement came on the same day that the news appeared that Dets. Joshua Jaynes and Myles Cosgrove were fired by the LMPD because of the attack that resulted in Taylor’s death. Jaynes was not at Taylor’s apartment the night of the raid, but he did get the search warrant. Cosgrove fired the shot that killed the former paramedic.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer praised Shields as an “agent of change throughout his long and distinguished career” and a “highly respected visionary”.
“When she presented herself as a candidate for our leadership, saying that this was the only position she was interested in and full of passion and with the skills and experience to achieve the improvements and reforms we need, she was the unanimous choice,” he said. him at a press conference.
Shields said in June that he was resigning from the Atlanta Police Department, where he worked for more than two decades.
The announcement came hours after police officer Garrett Rolfe shot Rayshard Brooks, a black man, dead in the parking lot of a Wendy restaurant. Rolfe was fired after the shooting.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said in a statement at the time that Shields wanted to step down “so that the city urgently moves forward to rebuild the desperately needed trust in our communities.”
Shields reiterated these sentiments at Wednesday’s press conference.
“The murder of Rayshard Brooks was a tragedy. It was horrible. And what I recognized is that there were a lot of problems at stake, even before that, but it culminated in the murder of Rayshard. And what I realized is that the longer I got, I was going to be a distraction and the city needs to move on “, she said.
Shields will begin his new role with the LMPD on January 19. Former LMPD assistant chief Yvette Gentry will continue to serve as chief in the meantime.
Gentry was brought into the midst of a national outcry over the death of Taylor, a black woman who died during a police operation in March at her home in Louisville.
Fischer said the city worked with the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit police research organization, to help find a new boss. Shields briefly approached critics of the decision, saying he expects people to look at his career.
“I would like to ask people to look at my work and see who I was, what I accomplished, what I demand from a department,” she said.
