LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After six weeks of training nearly every LMPD officer, the department is ready to put into place a new policy for how officers pull you over.
Officers will be hitting the streets starting Thursday with those changes in mind.
LMPD announced in May it would be making policy changes to their traffic stop procedure.
“These policies aim to strike a balance between the concerns of the community and the need for us to conduct traffic stops for both safety and investigative reasons,” Police Chief Steve Conrad said, in the YouTube video.
- LMPD added language to each revised policy to address department expectations that officers will conduct each interaction without bias
- LMPD added language to emphasize that a nervous person or someone in a high crime area are not indicators to justify certain actions by an officer
- LMPD provided guidelines for decision making and instances of handcuffing people that are not under arrest, removing individuals from a vehicle or instructing people to sit on the ground during stops or other instances
- LMPD made procedural changes including how to document actions in certain situations
“These changes will enhance officer safety, reinforce our department, values, give you more guidance for doing your jobs, and improve trust with those in our community who may question what we do,” Conrad said.
These changes were made due to community criticism about how the department conducts its stops after a video surfaced showing an LMPD officer conducting a traffic stop on then 18-year-old Tae Ahn Lea.
The officer said Lea made too wide of a turn, but many claimed the officer was unnecessarily aggressive during the stop.
That video wasn't used as part of the officer's training on the policy changes.
"We don't use our own body camera video for anything and then with it being an ongoing investigation we don't comment on those in training," Justin Witt said.
Officer Witt conducted the two-hour training courses for all LMPD officers.
"Through that two-hour instruction, we went through a Powerpoint of each specific policy and how it affected the way people would conduct traffic stops. We did it over a six-week period," Witt said. "We went through some hypothetical situations. Officers were able to ask questions about how it would change the way they get someone out of the car or how it would change their opportunity to get someone on the ground."
The policy changes do outline department expectations officers should conduct each stop without bias.
"We put policies and procedures in place to make sure that we are continuing to foster a positive environment and positive trust with the public. every policy is evaluated. we'll continue to do ongoing training with traffic stops to make sure our officers are equipped with the tools they need to complete a traffic stop and to stop criminal behavior," Witt said.
While LMPD emphasizes no traffic stop is ever routine, the updated policy gives guidelines on how officers make decisions.
"What reasonable suspicion is, what probable cause is, the difference in the two, why you can pull someone out of a car, why you can set them on the ground, why you can place someone in handcuffs when they're not under arrest, why you can search their vehicle," Witt said.
The changes also outline required forms officers need to fill out regarding every traffic stop they conduct, and why they made their decisions.
With recent homicides and stolen cars, some people have also questioned if the changes will prevent officers from catching some of that illegal activity. LMPD says that's not the case.
"It's not a hindrance. It's actually given officers more tools because it's giving them the articulate reasons on why they can do these things," Witt said. "We're just telling them why. People want to know why. They want to know why they have to get out of the car, why they're being put in handcuffs, why we're searching their vehicles, so it's asking officers to be more personable, to tell people and explain to them why we're inconveniencing them for the time that we are. And then hopefully through the interactions, people understand why we're doing what we're doing and we're just doing our job."
Overall, LMPD is confident the changes, as they hit the streets starting Thursday, will be positive.
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