Lexington Police Archives: turns out, Chief Weathers was an absolute unit back in the day

We recently requested records from The Lexington Police Department on Chief Lawrence Weathers. While the 198 page file obviously contains a mixed bag of interesting content, there is one interesting point to showcase: Chief Weathers was actually a pretty good street cop back in the day, and participated in some pretty big busts.

In 1995, when he was a lowly detective, he and another cop used an atlas to time the arrival of a kilo of cocaine being delivered from New York. They staked out I-64 around 5:30 in the morning and waited…

On September 5, 1995, Detective Greene received a phone call from an unknown subject from the state of New York. This subject advised him that a suspect was leaving New York on her way to Lexington, Kentucky, in a black Toyota 4-Runner with Kentucky tags, and that in this vehicle would be a kilo of cocaine.

Acting on this information. Detective Greene obtained an atlas [an atlas was an analog navigational device used in the 20th century] and determined that the vehicle would be arriving in Lexington at approximately 6:00 a.m. Detective Greene advised me of these facts, and he and I felt it would be a long shot to get the vehicle, but he was willing to try to locate the vehicle coming off I-64.

Detective Weathers assisted Detective Greene, and they went out to I-64 at 5:30 a.m. to attempt to locate this vehicle. At approximately 6:05 a.m., they observed the vehicle coming into Lexington on I-64. They followed the vehicle into Lexington but lost sight of it on New Circle Road. Within a few minutes, the vehicle was located at the Shell Station on New Circle Road at Russell Cave Road. Detective Greene obtained a search warrant, and he did in fact find a kilo of cocaine in the engine compartment of the vehicle. No arrest has been made at this time due to not being able to positively identify the driver of the vehicle.

I feel Detectives Guy Greene and Lawrence Weathers should receive a Professional Service Award for their actions. They took the initiative to act on this anonymous tip and were able to take a kilo of cocaine off the streets of Lexington. The street value of the kilo was over $200,000.

1995 Professional Service Awards Request

We’re often critical of the police in Lexington, and obviously will follow this article up with some of the naughty bits from Weathers’ file for balance, but check out some more of the positive highlights from Weathers’ up and coming days: