Louisville’s city government commissioned the historical research as part of its Truth and Change Initiative. It was concluded that police violence in the city had been systematic for centuries and disproportionately affected disadvantaged communities.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg’s administration was “extremely upset” that University of Louisville researchers published and publicly spoke out about the disgraceful history of the city’s police department. The email was obtained by The Courier-Journal under Kentucky’s open records law.
The city commissioned three University of Louisville professors to write the report as part of its Truth and Change Initiative, which also aims to build trust between police and communities and acknowledge the harm caused by law enforcement.
The report is one of the few pieces of the reconciliation project to date, even though Louisville’s city government has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars over two years on this ambitious effort.
A report released in January concluded that police violence in Louisville has been systemic for centuries and disproportionately affects disadvantaged communities.
“I wanted to let you know that I was contacted this evening by the mayor’s communications office, who is extremely upset that the university is distributing the police report and giving media interviews about it,” John Carman, director of communications for the University of Louisville, wrote in a Feb. 8 email to Katherine Fossl, one of the history book’s lead authors.
He further added: “According to the mayor’s office, the city and the university had an agreement to jointly publish the report. The city paid the university to prepare the report, but the university did not have time to fully review the report. The university said it was particularly outraged.
Fosl, the historian, disputed that he sent Cullman a copy of the October 2023 contract addendum, saying that after the report was sent to Metro Government, “U of L did not provide the report and related data. be freely disclosed or made public.” that.
“Talking about payments in this context suggests that they bought a set of research results,” Fosl wrote to Cullman. “However, Metro has repeatedly assured us that we have complete academic freedom.”
According to U of L’s contract with Metro government, the university was to be paid $10,601 to conduct the research: $3,000 to Fossl, $1,500 to Felicia Jamieson, assistant professor of history, $1,500 to Siddhant Issar, assistant professor of political science, and another $2,400 to be split among two student research assistants.
Fossl, who also wrote a biography of prominent Louisville civil rights activist Ann Braden, said not being able to publicly discuss the report was an “infringement of academic freedom.”
Greenberg spokesman Kevin Traeger told the Courier-Journal that the mayor’s office was “caught off guard” when U of L and researchers began distributing the report.
In an interview on May 10, Mayor Greenberg said he believed there was an agreement in the contract with the University of Louisville to jointly release the report, but later that day, the mayor’s office told The Courier Journal that the mayor’s statement was false.
“It was our hope to collaborate with the University of Louisville on disseminating the report, highlighting its findings and ensuring an opportunity for community engagement. While we are disappointed that collaboration did not materialize, we appreciate the University of Louisville engaged in positive discussions with our office about how we can work together on the report going forward,” Scottie Ellis, a spokeswoman for Greenberg, said in an email.
Cullman said in an email to the Courier Journal that Metro Government would like to review the study before it is made public and that U of L “has a great relationship with Mayor Greenberg’s office.”
What did the report say?
The report, titled “The History of Policing in Louisville: A Fact-Finding Report on Institutional Harm,” concludes that “abusive and disproportionately violent interactions between police and Black people are not the exception; rather, they form a consistent systemic pattern over time and are inextricably linked to broader issues of power and inequality.”
The report tracked policing in Louisville from its founding in the late 18th century to recent times.
“Taken together, the report, which comprises more than 200 years of data, historically traces how Louisville’s accepted policing practices, policies, and procedures — maintaining social order and public safety — have adversely and disproportionately impacted Black, brown, working class, poor, immigrant, gay, and disabled communities,” the report states. “Rather than viewing instances of police violence as aberrations perpetuated by individual bad officers, we situate them as systemic, existing within broader structures of policing that unfold in the context of specific historical and sociopolitical contexts.”
The history concluded with a detailed account of the “Slushygate” scandal, reported by the Courier Journal, which took place in 2018 and 2019 in which Louisiana State Police officers in unmarked vehicles were filmed throwing drinks at pedestrians.
Greenberg told the Courier Journal: “The more people read this, the more it will help us achieve our goal of improving relations. I strongly believe people need to understand history. History is not always the story we want to hear.”
The report makes several recommendations to improve Louisville’s policing and “change long-standing patterns of systemic harm.”
LMPD cannot rebuild itself. To break the “blatant lack of accountability” among officers that has been consistent throughout the history of Louisville’s police force, “democratic efforts to provide transparency and accountability between police and the people they serve” are needed. We need to develop a mechanism that At least some officers would be required to live in the communities they police. Rather than increasing the police budget every year, Louisville would reallocate funds to “comprehensively cover the economic, social, educational, and health needs of Louisville’s vulnerable communities.” Financial compensation will be awarded to victims of police abuse and communities who have faced “intergenerational harm at the hands of police.” His scathing 2023 report on the LMPD by the Department of Justice should be “taken seriously as a starting point, not an end.”
Mayor and report writers trade accusations
The authors wrote in their report that the report has limitations because “Louisville Metro Government (LMG) requested an early date for the final investigation.”
After the report was published, Fosl told Louisville Public Media that Metro Government asked for the report “eight months earlier than we originally agreed to provide it.”
A week after the interview, Greenberg was asked about Fossl’s comments at a press conference.
“The accusations that our administration denied the request for an eight-month extension are completely false. They are not true. The fact is that a two-month extension was requested and granted. , the claim to the contrary that the city is trying to rush someone’s work is completely false. We gave the researchers more time than was contracted to do the work,” he said. Ta.
Greenberg told the Courier-Journal earlier this month that it was “highly misleading” to suggest that the researchers were “contractually forced to publish their report without sufficient time.” He emphasized.
In response to written questions from The Courier-Journal, Fossell and another report author stood by the timeline.
” [U of L]- The Metro contract has an end date of October 31, 2023, and historical research was conducted during monthly remote planning and update conversations with Metro in April, May, and June 2023. It has been verbally stated that this will continue until the spring of 2024. ” Fosl said.
She further added: “Until late October, we assumed we would have more time than 2023. And to finish the study and write the report by the December 2023 deadline that Metro gave us in late October.” But it took a lot of effort.”
Jamison corroborated Fosl’s explanation, saying Metro Government “emphasized” the spring 2024 deadline at the meeting.
They said they had not heard anything from the Metro government for several weeks after submitting their report on Dec. 31, 2023. They also stressed they were not speaking on behalf of the university.
The third report author did not respond to requests for comment from The Courier Journal.
Fosl said in an email to Cullman in February that researchers “had no reason to suspect that there was a plan involving Metro.” [the report] Jeez. If there was a violation of the agreement, it was Metro, which failed to fulfill several elements of the agreement (listening sessions, LMPD archives). The indirect message they sent us was to cease the truth and change work that this history is a part of. ”
According to a “scope of work” document included in the contract, the researchers were supposed to have access to truth-and-change listening sessions with the community to assist with data collection. But the listening sessions, a central part of this effort, never took place.
According to a July 2023 Situation Update from the National Network for Safe Communities, an organization hired by Metro Government to support truth and change, history is not complete until city governments and police departments have access to data. It was up to me whether or not I would allow it.
In a letter to Cullman, Fosl said that if the university accepted the mayor’s office’s “erroneous statements” and agreed to jointly release a report, it “simply reflects a pattern of lack of transparency in its administration.” We just need to keep it going,” he said.
“To do so ultimately perpetuates the culture of injustice within our local police force that has plagued this community for years, and to undermine the dignity, freedom, and indeed the lives of far too many innocent people, especially Black people.” It will cost him his life.”
Contact reporter Josh Wood at jwood@courier-journal.com or X (formerly known as Twitter). @JWoodJourno.
