The Louisville law enforcement community has a new leader, Mayor Craig Greenberg announced Jacquelyn Gwen Barro, as well as the new chief of police on July 20th, six months after she took over as interim chief.

Our Kelsie Stark sat down with the new chief to discuss the future of Lmpd and the change that's already happening.

Welcome, Chief Gwen Blower.

Well, thank you for being here.

Last time we spoke to you here.

You had just been appointed the interim chief, and you said you had an interest in this role as a permanent one.

Now, six months later, what has changed?

Or maybe what have you learned here in the past six months as interim?

Well, thank you, first of all, for having me here.

So being in the interim role just allowed me to be in that number one seat to drive the initiatives that are already had planned and to just to see it implemented and move forward.

So now that I'm the permanent chief, the goals and the missions that I already have in place, I'm just really now saying we are stable eyes.

I am here.

I know that now I can develop and move forward with my five year strategic plan for this great department.

So what has changed?

What has changed?

Just a little bit of the change is that my officers now, they understand who their chief is, and that is a big change for them.

That's the change I want to highlight.

And they are ecstatic to know what leader they have and they are excited to know that they do have a chief and that there's stability there.

That is that change that you see.

So now you'll see that I will even like to say that my officers now have exhaled.

They were holding their breath.

They didn't know which direction the administration may go or or who else they were going to get.

And so now they understand me.

They know me.

We have a, you know, a great relationship.

And so now the we have exhaled and they know exactly where we're going with clear communication.

And so that's the change.

You've already reduced two officer vacancies from 290 to 250.

There's a larger police academy already happening.

What are you doing to try to recruit and retain more officers?

Being visible, being accessible and being available.

And I believe those are just those those qualities that that the police department needs right now as a leader, but also to it's just not me.

I have great people working behind the scenes.

I background recruitment officers are always thinking about new ways of marketing, how we can target those individuals to spark interest in becoming a law enforcement professional, but also to the funding that we just recently received in our budget from the mayor.

The council just greatly improved and I'm just so excited about that.

That's going to help us.

That's going to help us do some additional targeted marketing and recruitment for those individuals that truly want a career in law enforcement.

So that is what you're saying.

And I will submit to you, people want sound leadership.

And so you'll have those individuals that are interested that I can work for that that individual.

I can work for that department.

And they're seeing the change.

The LNP is in, LAPD is doing and they want to be a part of it.

Some change is already underway.

You've helped launch the department's first nonfatal shooting unit, expanded the crisis call diversion program, opened the first Officer Wellness Center and created a new narcotics tip line.

That's a lot in six months.

And an interim role.

Is there an accomplishment you're most proud of or what do you hope to build on from that?

All of those I'm most proud of because those are those are actual initiatives that should have been in place a long time ago and that I see the need and I know that that is going to help us move in a better direction.

It's going to help the community, the wellness center.

We're going to be looked at across the nation for having a wellness center.

I must submit to unanimous applaud the foundation for their support in this effort and the administration.

And we are Greenberger from day one getting behind that.

That is huge for us.

But having a healthy, well-rounded officer is going to benefit the community.

And we're hoping to be that model for other agencies to actually say, hey, I will want to do that for our city, because having a healthier officer is going to build upon that public trust that we all need.

So all of those initial initiatives are huge for me and great accomplishments.

Great accomplishments.

Not to say you're without challenges as you are still dealing with negotiations from the Department of Justice.

What's your approach there as you work forward to implement some of those mandated changes?

Yes.

So we know we're going to get into a consent decree.

We know the negotiations are right around the corner.

Right.

So we already know that a DOJ is going to come with their proposals, but we have a seat at the table so that we are able to weigh in on those proposals and make sure that wherever agreement that we're we will get into, that it actually benefits not only the department that we can meet the benchmarks set in there, but it does benefit the community.

The community wants to see that LAPD is reaching those goals and completing those task, whatever the agreement that we get into.

So those that is critical.

That is a critical opponent of the negotiation agreement.

So I am hopeful.

I see it as an opportunity for more training, better equipment, better community relationships because they understand what that consent decree is about.

And as we move forward within it and I'm hoping that we'll I know we're going to be in it for some years, but I'm hoping that we will not be that city where we're in it for ten and 20 in that amount of years.

That is draining on the funding portion of the city as well, but also to own a department.

Chief Gwen Barela well is the city's first black woman to serve as head of the police department in Louisville.

She's also an ordained minister.

She discusses both and part two of our interview tomorrow on Kentucky Edition.