A new oversight board of Lexington police actions was proposed in 2020. It was never created
A new city board charged with examining past police disciplinary actions and making policy — announced over two years ago by Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton — has never been created.
“People across our country, including people in Lexington, are demanding more accountability and transparency in the way police are disciplined, and we have heard them,” Mayor Linda Gorton said during a June 19, 2020, press conference announcing the creation of the new board. “I think our police are excellent. I believe by establishing this process of providing external, after-action input and review, we can make them even stronger.”
That post-disciplinary review board was never formed, city officials said this week.
“We did not appoint the post disciplinary review board,” said Susan Straub, a spokeswoman for the city. “We heard from a lot of people who felt it would not be helpful, and we felt the timing was wrong. We focused on putting civilians on the disciplinary review board instead.”
Straub also said Gorton’s Commission on Racial Justice and Equality, which was appointed in July 2020, after the post-disciplinary review board was announced, did not recommend the creation of a post-disciplinary police review board when it released its final findings in October 2020.
Several members of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council also raised questions about the after-action disciplinary review board during an October 2020 council committee meeting. At the time, the city was proposing $50,000 for a consultant to help start the board and make recommendations on its membership. Several council members questioned the cost at the time.
Rev. Clark Williams, a member of the Black Faith Leaders who has pushed the city for more reforms, including police oversight, said they were not aware the post-disciplinary review board was not created.
“At the time it was being discussed, there was a lot of sentiment that it was not enough. We wanted a citizen review board,” Williams said. “If there was so much value being placed on post-disciplinary review board by the mayor and her administration, it would seem that it would not just disappear without any additional dialogue.”
Under state law, the city of Lexington cannot have an external citizens’ police disciplinary review board, which typically is made up of citizens, not police officers. The make up of external police disciplinary boards can vary by city.
A post-disciplinary board was allowed and did not require sign offs from the Fraternal Order of Police Bluegrass Lodge 4, the police union, Gorton said at the time of the creation of the board.
To get an external citizen review board would take a change in state law.
That hasn’t happened nor has there been a push in recent years to change state law to allow for an external citizen review board.
Lexington put two citizens on an internal police disciplinary review board, a change that was approved by the police union during the negotiations of a new four-year police contract in 2021.
The new board consists of two members of the FOP, five members of the police command staff and two members of the public.
The two citizens, Allison Connelly and Darlene Barber, were appointed to that board in June 2022.
Since then, the internal police disciplinary board has not met, city officials confirmed.
Lexington Police Chief Lawrence Weathers can determine an officer’s punishment for running afoul of police procedures. Weathers can also choose to have the internal disciplinary board hear the officer’s case or an officer can ask the disciplinary action be sent to the internal police board.
The police have sent disciplinary actions to the board since June 2022, Straub said. However, the officers have either resigned or retired before the board could meet, she said.
Williams said they will be monitoring how the new internal police disciplinary board operates when it meets with the new citizen board members.
This story was originally published February 13, 2023 at 12:31 PM.
