Request to Investigate the Death of Breonna Taylor

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of more than 220 national organizations committed to promoting and protecting the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States, and the 219 organizations listed below, we urge the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the recent fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky. Specifically, we ask that DOJ: (1) determine whether the officers involved in the death of Breonna Taylor violated criminal civil rights laws; (2) pursue a pattern or practice investigation of the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) for its recurrent use of excessive force, particularly when executing searches of persons of color; and, (3) restore its decades-long commitment to addressing systemic police misconduct by law enforcement agencies nationally