Truth & Transformation

In partnership with the National Network for Safe Communities (NNSC), the Office of Equity is attempting to improve the relationship between LMPD and residents in certain designated police districts through implementation of the Truth and Transformation Initiative by providing:

• Procedural Justice Training to command and patrol staff and all other LMPD personnel by the end of 2022
• Listening Sessions to create dialogue between community members and law enforcement through facilitated conversation wherein community members are empowered to share their voice and feel truly heard, and members of law enforcement gain perspective through honest conversation with the community they serve.
• Narrative Collection in which participants share personal and community narratives of harm to build mutual understanding and empathy and to elevate the voices of community members outside of just listening sessions.
• Fact-Finding, via thorough research, to understand both historical and present-day institutional harms of over policing to our community
• Policy and Practice Change based on community feedback, in order to prevent the same harms from ever taking place again. 

This initiative, based on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in post-Apartheid South Africa, is an important part of creating a just, peaceful, and whole Louisville Metro.  The beginning and most important aspects of the Truth and Transformation Initiative is the initial step of an acknowledgement that certain populations in our community have been harmed at the hands of the law enforcement.  The next step is the training of command and patrol staff, and all other LMPD staff by the NNSC training experts, followed by Listen Sessions for residents and LMPD and engagement of work by a qualified researcher to gather testimony, document harm to the community, and report-out of findings.