Louisville

the line every day to serve Louisville with honor.”

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said the city “has wounds that are not yet healed.”

“We have to come to terms with where we’ve been, so we can get to where we want to be,” Greenberg said.

Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was roused from her bed by police, who came through the door using a battering ram after midnight on March 13, 2020. Three officers fired shots after Taylor’s boyfriend, fearing an intruder, shot an officer in the leg. Taylor was struck several times and died at the scene.

The warrant used to enter her home is now part of a separate federal criminal investigation, and one former Louisville officer already has pleaded guilty to helping falsify information on the warrant. No drugs were found in Taylor’s home. Two more officers are charged in the warrant probe, and a third, Brett Hankison, is charged with endangering Taylor and her neighbors with his shots into her apartment.

One of the attorneys for Taylor’s family, Ben Crump, said the family was encouraged by the Justice Department’s results. “These findings, and LMPD’S expected cooperation with the DO J’s recommended remedial measures, will help protect the citizens of Louisville and shape its culture of policing,” Crump said in a news release.

The report said Black motorists were more likely to be searched during traffic stops, and officers used neck restraints, police dogs and Tasers against people who posed no imminent threat. Garland

cited one incident where two officers threw drinks at pedestrians and recorded the encounters. Those incidents happened in 2018 and 2019. Both officers are facing federal charges.

NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson applauded the Justice Department findings but said federal lawmakers have yet to step up and enact wider police reforms.

“While Congress continues to fail our country with police reform, at least the Department of Justice is taking their jobs seriously,” Johnson’s statement said.

He added that the group lauded Garland and the Department of Justice for continuing a “pursuit of justice” and added, “Congress should take a page from their book, do their jobs, and pass the legislation necessary to save innocent lives.”

Garland mentioned some reforms the city has undergone since Taylor’s death, including a city law banning the use of “no-knock” warrants in 2020. The warrants are typically used in surprise drug raids. The city also started a pilot program that aims to send behavioral health professionals to some 911 calls, expanded community violence prevention efforts and sought to support health and wellness for officers, the report said.

TIMOTHY D. EASLEY/AP Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg (right), joining Attorney General Merrick Garland at a news conference Wednesday to address findings of a U.S. Justice Department investigation, said, “We have to come to terms with where we’ve been.”