ATLANTA — Newly appointed Louisville Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel is ready for her big promotion as she steps in to an embattled department, looking to bring healthy interactions and community engagement to the forefront.
Gwinn-Villaroel's rise to her new role began in Atlanta. She spent nearly 25 years -- 24.5 to be exact -- in many different positions within the Atlanta Police Department.
In Louisville, she said that policing is in a "critical state" and explained that she hopes to drive the ship for change in a city that has been longing for it when it comes to its policing. Her time in Atlanta was valuable for a number of reasons, but Gwinn-Villaroel said it allowed her to explore what she enjoyed and what she didn't.
"Atlanta Police Department is an amazing department," Gwinn-Villaroel said in an exclusive interview with 11Alive. "It has truly shaped my career -- being able to move around in different assignments that some departments are not able to have such movement, but because of the size of the Atlanta Police Department I was afforded that opportunity and I grew."
Gwinn-Villaroel came to Louisville from the Atlanta Police Department in 2021 alongside former Chief Erika Shields, who hired her as a deputy chief. Greenberg, who was elected mayor last year, had said in December that Gwinn-Villaroel would become interim chief after Shields stepped down in January.
“This is a challenging job,” Greenberg said at a news conference Thursday. “And over the last few months, it’s become very clear that the best person to do this work is already on the job.”
Gwinn-Villaroel thanked Greenberg for taking a “leap of faith” with her hiring.
“I stand here today on the shoulders of so many who paved the way for me and opened the doors,” she said.
She faces challenges in recruiting new officers to a force that has about 250 job openings, and restoring community trust after the U.S. Justice Department announced in March that it had found Louisville police engaged in a pattern of violating constitutional rights and discrimination.
The report said the Louisville police department “discriminates against Black people in its enforcement activities,” uses excessive force and conducts searches based on invalid warrants. It also said the department violates the rights of people engaged in protected speech, like the street protests in the city in the summer of 2020 after Breonna Taylor’s death.