Louisville police chief to resign at end of year

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville Police Chief Erika Shields will step down, in January, less than two years after she took the job amid tensions over the department’s handling of Breonna Taylor’s fatal shooting by police.

Louisville Mayor-elect Craig Greenberg said Monday that he recently spoke to Shields and she offered to submit her resignation, giving Greenberg the opportunity to pick a new chief when his term begins on Jan. 2.

Shields took over, in January 2021, months after the Taylor shooting and a summer full of street protests that called attention to the shooting and police treatment of protesters. She was the fourth chief to lead the department after Taylor was killed, in March 2020. Former Chief Steve Conrad was fired and two interim chiefs served short terms, in 2020.