The Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) in Louisville, Kentucky is simultaneously experiencing a mass exodus and a deficit in successful recruits in the wake of the “Defund the Police” movement, according to Fox News.
Since 2020, Louisville has seen over 200 police officers either retire or resign, with 190 leaving the force in 2020 and 43, so far, having left in 2021. Since the start of 2021, the department has hired only about 26 new officers, for a current annual deficit of 17. In 2020, despite hiring 104 new officers, 188 left in the same period, producing a deficit of 84. With these losses, the department currently stands at approximately 1,069 officers in total, which is 255 less than its “authorized strength” threshold of at least 1,324 officers.
Dave Mutchler, secretary of the River City Fraternal Order of Police, described the situation for the department as being “in dire straits.” He went on to say that “Our manpower is critically low,” and that “in the climate that we currently find ourselves, the pool of people wanting to become officers is shrinking every day.”
The Louisville police have become one of the primary targets for the far-left Black Lives Matter movement and its new slogan in 2020, “Defund the Police.” In March of last year, Louisville police officers served a warrant for the arrest of a black man named Kenneth Walker, who was suspected of the possession and trafficking of drugs. When police announced themselves and attempted to enter the apartment, Walker began shooting at them through the door; police returned fire, with a stray bullet hitting and killing Walker’s girlfriend Breonna Taylor.
While a grand jury investigation is still ongoing, the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Merrick Garland, announced its own federal investigation into the incident.