Here’s a truism: You get the culture you build.
Here’s a counterpoint: You get the culture you are willing to put up with, to accept.
And when it comes to internal investigations in law enforcement and the military in Kentucky, it appears that leadership is willing to put up with quite a lot. Quite, quite a lot.
Take, for example, the investigation of a Louisville Metro Police officer who tased a Black woman who was on the ground with her hands behind her back. The internal investigation took two years, during which time the officer was still on the force. He was eventually (eventually!) terminated by Chief Conrad.
Or take the shooting of David McAtee by a member of the Kentucky National Guard in the summer of 2020. The Guard said it was going to do an investigation, and would report the results. But as noted by WFPL on May 5, “It’s been nearly a year, and that report was supposed to be completed last summer. But National Guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Stephen Martin says the report is not complete, and that investigators have other priorities.”
And in a story that should put everyone’s teeth on edge, the new LMPD chief, Erika Shields, told the Public Safety Commission that there were 70 internal affairs investigations that are “backed up.” Put the phrase “culture of accountability and transparency” in your mind, when read this from the WHAS story:
She addressed Louisville Metro’s Public Safety Committee earlier in the week, and noted much of the problem stems from paper records, and no automated system.
“We don’t know where they’ve gone. We don’t know how long someone’s held or had them. It’s very hard to hold people accountable when you don’t know where the file is,” she said.
…
During the Wednesday meeting, Metro Council President David James pointed to another concern from the report: auditing and tracking controls were turned off, so no one could see who had access to an investigation. According to the report, the confidentiality of the investigations are vulnerable to exposure and influence.
Read that again: “We don’t know where they’ve gone. … Don’t know where the file is.” Pardon my language, but WTAF?
It’s time for the leadership of these organizations to be held accountable for the culture they have accepted – a culture of sloppy work, of getting by, of covering up, and in some cases of lying through either silence or outright lies.
And if those leaders can’t change the culture and get internal investigations the attention they deserve, then it’s time to find new leaders.
You get the culture you build, or the culture you accept. And it’s time for us citizens to say:
This is not acceptable. At all. Fix it.
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