Two Louisville Metro Police Department cruisers are parked under an overpass in Louisville. (J. Tyler Franklin / Louisville Public Media)Louisville Metro Government stepped in to initiate police reform after the U.S. Department of Justice terminated a consent decree in 2025.Some say the city is n ot making enough progress, especially in how officers interact with people going through a mental health crisis.That was brought into focus after the Louisville police killing of Katelyn Hall in March, and Martin Nitzken, Jr. just this past weekend. Both were experiencing a mental health crisis.Topher Sanders is a journalist with ProPublica who has investigated the city's reform efforts. He spoke about his reporting with LPM’s Bill Burton.This transcript was edited for clarity and length.Bill Burton: What did your investigation find?Topher Sanders: What we found was that, particularly when you talk with the local experts in Louisville, and national experts as well, that the city of Louisville has been on notice for a number of years. Its police response to mental health calls has a lot of room for improvement, particularly when we want to create safe spaces for the officers and safe spaces for the people who are dealing with mental health challenges at the time. In 2021 and again in 2023, they were receiving notice from one local expert within the Department of Justice, and a lot of people feel like more progress should have been made, given that it has been five years.BB: You focus on the killing of Katelyn Hall in her own apartment by LMPD in the midst of a mental health crisis she was enduring. It happened again just recently with an LMPD officer shooting Martin Nitzken, Jr. How could this affect what the city is going to do?TS: I think time will tell. The recorded body-worn camera footage of the most recent incident is being reviewed by the community, mental health experts, law enforcement experts. They're reviewing this material as we speak and providing their insights on where the best moves are forward for the community of Louisville and LMPD. But what it does beg the question, you have two really unfortunate incidents in quick succession. One wonders, does there need to be some kind of an emergency assessment of LMPD response to mental health? We'll see whether or not the mayor and the chief make that happen.BB: The city of Louisville isn't the only one that had a consent decree terminated by the Department of Justice. Are other cities watching Louisville to see what they do, since they've decided to take it upon themselves to do the work?TS: Minneapolis, the site where George Floyd was murdered, they are a city heavily engaged in wanting to reform their police department with or without the Department of Justice. But the other cities that were in much earlier phases of the consent decree process, to be fair to them, we’ll just have to see what happens with police reform in those communities.BB: One of the things the city did in its own reform effort was create the Office of Inspector General. In your coverage, you spoke with the I.G., Ed Harness. What did he tell you about how he views police reform?TS: Looking at the community commitment as the mayor calls the local effort, the one thing that Mr. Harness pointed out, which I think is, is kind of the key thing, is when there isn't an enforcement mechanism, there isn't a federal judge that will hold all parties accountable, will call balls and strikes, when you don't have that as a part of the system, what will be the results of an effort? What will happen when the monitor and the police chief don't agree on an assessment of data or pathway forward? Who's going to make that determination? Right now, the community commitment doesn't make a decision on that. One of Mr. Harness's notes to me was that that's why it's a test case. We're gonna want to see what happens. ...read more read less