ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
There's a new police chief in Louisville, Ky. Paul Humphrey takes over a department in turmoil. He is the sixth police chief the city has had in four years. And Louisville is not all that unusual in that respect. Many cities across the U.S. have seen a revolving door of police chiefs in recent years. Jared Bennett with the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting has more.
JARED BENNETT, BYLINE: A crowd gathers around Paul Humphrey at an outreach event outside a local grocery store a few weeks after he's been appointed acting Louisville police chief. People like Ilet White, who moved here a year and a half ago, were happy to talk to the new chief.
ILET WHITE: I told him, I'm proud of all the work that they're doing 'cause the police have a really hard job. There's so much bad going on out here, and the police - they need all the help they can get from all us in the community.
BENNETT: That's not something Humphrey hears often. Louisville's police department has been under scrutiny, especially since officers killed Breonna Taylor in 2020. Since then, Louisville has seen a rotating cast of police chiefs, none lasting more than two years. Humphrey knows his role may be short-lived.
PAUL HUMPHREY: It's a job that takes its toll. So I hope I'm fortunate enough to last a decent amount of time in it, but we'll see.
BENNETT: Annual police chief turnover is high, about 80% in bigger cities, and it's accelerated over the last five years, according to Chuck Wexler. He's executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a group that also helps to recruit and train police leaders.
CHUCK WEXLER: It's not just Louisville. We see that across the country. New mayors come in. They want their new chief.
BENNETT: That's just one example of the political headwinds police chiefs have to navigate. Wexler says, they also grapple with pressure from community members and activists who want greater accountability.
WEXLER: Expectations of the public about policing have never been higher. Body-worn cameras are now showing the way, you know, police are having to arrest people or when there's use of force. All of those issues have made being a police chief more challenging than ever.
BENNETT: There's also urgency for chiefs to comply with consent decrees, which require troubled police departments to make changes under the watch of federal officials. Louisville is negotiating one such agreement after the U.S. Department of Justice last year found police violated the civil rights of Louisville residents, Black residents in particular. Humphrey agrees the department needs to change. For that, Humphrey says, he needs time.
HUMPHREY: We need long-term strategies. And if nobody can survive this position for that long, to have these strategies go through and actually stick to them, then you're never going to make progress.
BENNETT: Time is a luxury many police chiefs don't have with fast turnover. But Ian Adams, who teaches criminology and social justice at the University of South Carolina says, not all departments see this kind of churn.
IAN ADAMS: The largest agencies really are having this massive turnover - right? - increases in resignations, retirements and challenges in recruitment. But those challenges are less severe in the smaller-sized and medium-sized departments.
BENNETT: The challenges are also less severe among sheriffs. That's partly because they're elected rather than appointed, so they tend to be more insulated from political pressures. As for Humphrey and Louisville, ultimately, there's one person who will decide whether he stays in his new role, Mayor Craig Greenberg. And Greenberg is staying uncommitted. His office is still considering next steps. For NPR News, I'm Jared Bennett.
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