Push to Oust Louisville PD Chief Intensifying
Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Steve Conrad
The latest no confidence vote is coming out of Louisville, Kentucky. The Louisville City Council last month voted 13-9 to approve a resolution which “urges Mayor Greg Fisher to ask for Police Chief Steve Conrad’s resignation and open the selection process for a new Chief.
The resolution is a non-binding measure that requires no formal action from Fischer who appears adamant that he will continue to support Conrad.
In a statement, Fischer said: “This vote is a distraction from the real work many people in the city are doing to fight crime. Our citizens expect Metro Council to work with Chief Conrad and the Louisville PD to help improve our crime fighting plan. Instead, too many members are just critics and simplistically target one person for a complex problem – and it comes on the heels of the Metro Council cutting funding to important public safety programs like Cure Violence.”
Council member Angela Leet, a Republican, said officers and citizens “deserve better.”
“He has systematically failed us,” Leet said. “Chief Conrad either will not, cannot or simply refuses to answer this council’s questions regarding public safety issues in our community.”
But another member isn’t putting all of the blame on Chief Conrad.
Bill Hollander, chair of the council’s Democratic caucus, said solving crime is a complex issue and cannot be solved by a single person.
“A new chief can’t stop the scourge of drugs, can’t stop the influence of gangs, can’t restore hope for people who have suffered too long for a lack of opportunities,” he said.
Conrad, himself, has been adamant in his refusal to resign. This is not the first no-confidence vote Conrad has faced. Late last year, the River City Fraternal Order of Police, the local police union, held a similar vote in which 98 percent of some 600 members who cast votes said they lacked confidence in Conrad.
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
