Louisville’s interim police chief, Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel, will continue permanently in her role and take over a department that has been in turmoil since the 2020 police killing of Breonna Taylor and was excoriated this year in a scathing U.S. Department of Justice report. Ms. Gwinn-Villaroel, 49, will be the first Black woman to serve permanently as the Louisville Metro Police Department’s chief. She had been interim chief since January, after the resignation of her predecessor, Erika Shields, one of several recent leadership changes. “Over the past six months, Chief Gwinn-Villaroel has shown our city that she has exactly what I’m looking for in a chief and exactly what our community is looking for in a leader,” Mayor Craig Greenberg, who took office in January, said Thursday in a news release announcing her hiring. “She has extensive experience in law enforcement leadership and a record of reform.”Chief Gwinn-Villaroel, a 26-year law enforcement veteran, started with the department in 2021 as a deputy chief after having spent her entire career at the Atlanta Police Department.

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Persons: Jacquelyn, Breonna Taylor, Erika Shields, Gwinn, Villaroel, Craig Greenberg, “ Organizations: Department of Justice, Louisville Metro Police Department’s, ”, Atlanta Police Department