London City Council launches probe into Mayor Weddle, police use of FBI database
The London City Council is launching its own investigation into the use of a national crime database, just days after it was revealed the FBI was conducting a probe into potential misuse of searchable criminal-record software.
Council members unanimously adopted a resolution Wednesday seeking a log of all the London Police Department’s National Crime Information Center searches since Oct. 1, 2024, that include the names of 31 people who sit on the council or who are outspoken critics of London Mayor Randall Weddle.
Targets of the council’s probe include Weddle, whose administration has been ensnarled in controversy since he took office in 2023, recently appointed Acting Police Chief Gary Mehler and several other employees of the police department and joint, city-county 911 dispatch center.
The center’s board voted to shift partial control of the emergency communications from the police department to the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office last week after it came to light Kentucky State Police was stripping the London Police Department of its federal database credentials.
Sheriff John Root confirmed to the Herald-Leader the police department was the subject of the ongoing FBI investigation.
The council’s Wednesday resolution says “there is, at present, a pending investigation against the City and/or certain of its employees, including over the use of National Crime Information Center records,” but the FBI has declined comment.
Root said he believes federal law enforcement is concerned about the potential misuse of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information System, which police regularly employ to search suspect’s names against a national database of crime reports, fingerprint logs and a search of firearms registrations.
The names listed in the city council’s investigation Wednesday suggests council members believe city hall staff may have conducted background checks on Weddle’s political enemies. Those names include individuals who have lodged civil complaints against the mayor and their attorneys and people who have filed to run in the mayoral election later this year
As part of Wednesday’s proceedings, the council gave no indication of evidence of the searches or information on how it produced the 31 names potentially run through the database.
Members of the council, Weddle and Mehler did not respond to repeated Herald-Leader requests for comment Wednesday. The police department referred all questions to city hall. The KSP, which serves as the CJIS sponsor for police agencies in Kentucky, has not responded to multiple Herald-Leader requests for comment.
In addition to a log of searches, the council is asking the police department to hand over the policies and procedures it has in place for use of Crime Information Center data, communication regarding its use, documents related to the suspension of NCIC privileges, plus database terms and conditions and user agreements.
The council also wants communication regarding the use of NCIC by outside agencies, the city and police department’s policies governing the use of gratuities or gifts, shared law enforcement information agreements or policies, off-duty work details and a log of police department forfeitures since Jan. 1, 2023.
The mayor and the police department personnel named in the investigation are required to submit to the council answers to a list of 25 questions under oath that inquire about the city’s use of CJIS programs.
Background on the possible searches
Weddle, who was impeached by the council for official misconduct and later reinstated by a Laurel County special judge in October, has been locked in an ongoing public spat with his administration’s fiercest critics, whom he has labeled a “pedo clan.” He and his allies have been named in a suite of civil lawsuits related to those public feuds.
Former Laurel County Public Schools director of pupil personnel Charles Douglas “Doug” Phelps has been the subject of many of Weddle’s attacks. Phelps was pardoned of a child porn conviction by former Gov. Matt Bevin in 2019. He has since claimed the conviction was the result of an unsolicited message he received.
Phelps filed a lawsuit against Weddle in November painting Weddle as a vindictive mayoral candidate who later used the power he secured in the 2022 General Election to go after his political foes. He said he believes Weddle personally instructed law enforcement officers to search his name on the NCIC database to dig up dirt.
“I’m happy that this issue is being investigated,” Phelps told the Herald-Leader Wednesday. “If my right to privacy has been violated by those who are sworn to enforce the laws, that should concern every citizen.”
Investigation into the mayor
Another resolution the city council passed Wednesday launches a formal investigation into Weddle and several of his key political appointees regarding ordinances the city council passed earlier this year affecting the city’s budget and pay scale.
The council proposed cutting jobs to prevent the city from balancing the budget using overcollected garbage fees, but a special judge recommended against the city enforcing them after 86 city employees filed a lawsuit late last year claiming the ordinances would cause irreparable damage and are retaliatory in nature.
The investigation targets city hall’s budget preparation process and names Weddle and key city department heads, including Mehler, Fire Chief Donnie Hale, city clerk Ashley Taylor, finance director Dylan Bishop, information technology director Eric Stallard and city human resources director Bryan Johnson.
The council passed resolutions launching both investigations in a brief special-called meeting Wednesday afternoon before the resolutions had been made public. The council refused city attorney Larry Bryson’s request to read the resolutions aloud during the meeting.
Bryson said he and other city officials, many of whom are named in the council’s investigation, were not given copies of the resolutions until moments before the meeting was gaveled into session.
“You’re supposed to give fair notice to the public of what you’re going to talk about,” he said. “You cannot do these things in secret.”
This story was originally published February 11, 2026 at 2:28 PM.
