Louisville has hired Atlanta’s former chief to lead its police department after months of unrest over the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, and fired two …
Louisville has hired Atlanta’s former chief to lead its police department after months of unrest over the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, and fired two more officers involved in the deadly raid. The firings were announced Wednesday by city officials moments after they revealed their choice to lead the department. Erika Shields was the unanimous pick of a panel tasked with selecting the new chief, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said. She’ll be the fourth person to lead the department in Kentucky’s largest city since Taylor was shot by officers serving a warrant in March. “I commit to begin my work here with a focus on rebuilding community trust, trust that I believe was already eroding prior to Breonna Taylor’s killing,” Shields said. She also pledged to tackle gun violence in the city, which had a record 173 homicides in 2020. “The last year has shown that we in law enforcement have a long way to go,” said Shields, who starts the job on Jan.19. The trust between police and many in the city’s Black community has frayed since Taylor’s death, which sparked months of protests, police reforms and the firing of the city’s longtime chief, Steve Conrad. Two interim chiefs, including the first Black woman to the lead the department, have served since Conrad was fired in June. “We all felt that Chief Shields was the number one person,” said David James, a former Louisville police officer and the city’s Metro Council president. “She just rose to the top.” Shields served in Atlanta for 25 years, including more than three years as chief, which ended when she resigned in June after Atlanta officers fatally shot a Black man in a restaurant parking lot.
