A former deputy chief of the Louisville Metro Police Department will come back to serve as its interim chief, Mayor Greg Fischer announced Monday. When Yvette Gentry assumes the role, she will become the first woman to lead the law enforcement agency in Kentucky’s largest city.
Gentry, who is Black, will also be the second temporary chief in the past four months. She’ll succeed Rob Schroeder, who Fischer said will retire from the department Oct. 1. In assuming her new duties, Gentry will take a leave of absence from her current positions at Metro United Way and the Rajon Rondo Foundation. She starts with a transitionary period next Monday.
“Yvette brings the kind of unique experience and strong community relationships needed to lead LMPD until a permanent chief is in place,” Fischer said.
Her return to LMPD will come six months after Breonna Taylor was shot and killed by officers trying to execute a warrant on her apartment. The case has sparked calls for charges against the three officers who fired into her home, one of whom was shot in an exchange between them and Taylor’s boyfriend.
Another officer involved has been fired from the force, though he is appealing the decision.
The incident led to Louisville’s Metro Council passing a measure banning “no-knock” warrants and establishing new protocols for executing all search warrants. The city also has hired Hillard Heintze to conduct a review of LMPD practices.
After George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in Minneapolis in late May, protests began in Louisville and have continued for more than 100 days. Demonstrators paraded past Churchill Downs on Saturday as the track held the Kentucky Derby.
An emotional Gentry spoke of her experiences as a Louisville cop, a job she retired from in 2014, three years after becoming the deputy chief. She also spoke as a mother whose son faced discrimination as he moved into a new home.
“I’m not here just to help you unboard your beautiful buildings downtown,” she said at a press conference Monday. “I’m here to work with you to unboard the community that I served with all my heart in West Louisville, that was boarded for 20 or 30 years, and I just could not find the help. So, I’m here to help you do that because you promised to help me do that.”
Gentry will likely serve between four and six months in her interim position as the city goes through the selection process for a permanent chief. The application deadline ended last week, Fischer said, with more than 20 people seeking the job. He expects to fill the position by the end of the year.
Neither Gentry nor Schroeder were among the applicants, Fischer said.
Schroeder, Fischer added, agreed to take on the position for four months and is leaving to spend time with his family, focus on his well-being and finish work on his doctorate.
“His time at LMPD may now be ending, but his contribution to public safety is not,” the mayor said. “And when he’s ready, Rob Schroeder will make some American city and outstanding chief of police.”
Schroeder replaced Steve Conrad in June as tensions rose in the city after the June 1 shooting of David McAtee in an altercation between the Black restaurant owner and LMPD and Kentucky National Guard officers at his West End barbecue business.
The incident took place during the first days of demonstrations against the police in wake of the Taylor shooting and Floyd’s death and police and guardsmen were in the area in the early morning hours to break up a group apparently violating a curfew that gathered nearby.
LMPD officers wore body cameras, but those cameras were not working. While Conrad had previously announced his retirement effective June 30, Fischer went ahead and made the move to immediately dismiss the chief.
State officials said their investigation, which showed that McAtee likely shot first, was mostly complete, but a federal investigation was still ongoing.
