LOUISVILLE, Ky. — On Wednesday, the Louisville Metro Police Department revealed its new 2025 Crime Reduction Strategic Plan.
It's a guideline of what the department's leadership expects from each division within the Louisville Metro as they gear up to reduce violent crimes and earn community trust.
LMPD Chief Paul Humphrey, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg and members of his administration said they are working together to arrest and rehabilitate felony offenders.
The police department said next year's goal is to reduce homicides and establish relationships within communities. Humphrey made it clear Wednesday that LMPD is using statistics to direct officers in the new year.
"You're going to see us doing proactive police work which means that we are going to lock people up," Humphrey said. "As well as proactively contacting people to understand what their problems are and get them taken care of."
Willenium Enterprise Foundation founder Will Pitts said actions speak louder than words in building trust with the community.
Pitts said he's invited LMPD officers to several events he's organized for local youth, one of which is coming up Sunday called "Kut Out The Beef." Youth can get free haircuts and open up to barbers about violence they've experienced.
"I commend them for trying, but we have to see the proof," he said. "Let's see if the data tell us they're actually doing the thing that's super positive, is clearing up deaths and people are getting back to living and having fun in the city of Louisville."
Pitts has seen the impact violence can have on his community and he's brought in several organizations, like London's Barbershop, to let youth open up about trauma. He said he often tells children not to feel alone.
"I have trouble sleeping at nights. I can't unsee when I go and see kids in the hospital with their ears shot off, shot through the cheeks, you know, one through the head," he explained. "I can't unsee that but it affects me daily. So even myself, I deal with mental health and that's the easiest way to get them to open up. We're no different. We're similar in different ways we just have to get them to open up."
WHAS11 asked Humphrey about tasking each division to expand on community relationships, and how they plan to actually implement this effort since community members already feel forgotten about.
He said it was all about "management of resources."
"How are we going to make sure that officers have the time to do that community oriented proactive non-enforcement type of policing? That is on those division majors to come up with those plans on how they are going to make sure that officers have the time allotted to them and give them the direction," Humphrey explained.
The chief said other resources like the deflection plan through MetroSafe have helped ease officers' workloads, ensuring they won't have to respond to every mental health crisis and to free them up for more community engagement.
Greenberg encouraged the public to engage with LMPD and even consider a future position in law enforcement to combat short staffing. A public survey is available for feedback.
"The entire team needs more help," Greenberg said. "We have over 200 vacancies right now on LMPD. We want more people across our entire community to join up and be a part of the solution. You don't have to have a law enforcement background to be a part of the LMPD. With more members we can get more engaged in active policing. We can knock on more doors to get to know neighbors better."
Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.
Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, visit our Facebook page or X feed.