The mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, appointed a Black woman as the new interim police chief.
Yvette Gentry will replace Robert Schroeder, who is retiring on Oct. 1. Gentry previously worked as chief of community building in the city government. Before that, she worked as a police officer for two decades.
“Yvette brings the kind of unique experience and strong community relationships need to lead LMPD until a permanent chief is in place, and she is passionate about working to help her city reimagine public safety and address systemic racism,” Fischer said on Monday.
Fischer also stated that said Gentry has not applied for the permanent police chief as she is not interested in securing the role. Gentry has agreed to just a six-month term in the interim position.
“I do believe, and I have said it over and over, truth before reconciliation,” Gentry said in an interview with WDRB. “I am excited about the police chief search that is going on. I want them to find a permanent chief, but I think there is a different person that can stand in that gap that knows from experience a lot of things that can help us maybe accelerate moving forward in a more equitable manner, so I felt like it should be me to stand in the gap and do this.”
Lousiville faced civil unrest following the police shooting of unarmed Black EMT, Breonna Taylor.
Gentry tried to shut down rumors that she was used as a tokenistic gesture to help appease the public following Taylor’s killing.
“I am no optic. I’m not here for that,” she said. “Anybody that knows me, that has known me, I am not here for that. To be propped up, to be the Black face. I am waiting to hear the facts. If there is something that I feel like … I want to hear the evidence. I have been an investigator a long time. I know that there (are) a lot of lies being told out there, just in social media. A lot of people just see different stuff and I don’t know what the truth is because I haven’t seen anything. Like I said, I haven’t walked across the street to get a file. I won’t be privy to that until September, so I am waiting on the AG’s ruling as well to see what we can learn from this to go forward as a better police department.”
