The city of Louisville will pay a record-breaking $12 million to the family of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old woman fatally shot by police in her apartment earlier this year.
According to the Courier-Journal, the settlement, is the largest ever paid by the city of Louisville in connection with a police action.
The settlement also promises changes to policies and procedures regarding the execution of search warrants. However, it does not admit any wrongdoing on the part of the city or the police department.
The agreement also mandates that a commanding officer review and give written approval of all search warrants and SWAT matrices, documents aimed at calculating the specific dangers of a warrant location.
In addition the settlement requires the presence of paramedics whenever a warrant is executed. The night of the shooting, an ambulance left Taylor’s apartment before officers broke through her doorway. Taylor did not receive immediate EMS treatment and bled to death on the floor of her apartment. Sgt. Jon Mattingly, who was shot in the femoral artery by Taylor’s boyfriend during the raid, had to be rushed away from the apartment on top of another officer’s car. Several minutes went by until he received medical treatment, too. Mattingly survived his injury, WAV3 reports.
Other reforms in the settlement include:
* An early-action warning system to identify officers with “red flags,” and the retention of records related to internal officer complaints and investigations.
* A requirement that officers handling money during seizures work in pairs and wear body cameras
* The hiring of social workers by Louisville Metro PD to help officers on certain runs.
* Housing credits to officers to encourage them to live in Louisville, as opposed to surrounding counties, as well as encourage them to perform at least two hours of paid community service each week.
The settlement also pushes the city to bargain for increased drug and alcohol testing in the next round of contract negotiations with the police union.
