LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Mayor Craig Greenberg has named former Louisville Metro Police officer Michael Bogan as the next director of the city's Office of Group Violence Intervention.
"It's an opportunity to do something," Bogan said. "I come from a long list of people who believed in service. And I feel that serving others is my purpose."
Former mayor Greg Fischer launched Group Violence Intervention (GVI) in October 2020. GVI is a policing strategy born out of the National Network for Safe Communities at Jon Jay College in New York that over 50 cities now use.
The idea behind GVI is to prosecute people involved in gang shootings, but give those surrounding the violence access to resources like food and housing to convince them to stay out of trouble.
"I believe we can make, through the community, a strong argument as to why they need to stop," Bogan said.
Program administrators at the NNSC in New York say cities should measure their success of GVI through the number of homicides, nonfatal shootings and shooting victims.
Those numbers increased in the first year of GVI (2021) and then decreased in the second year (2022).
Through the first seven months of this year, they are increasing compared to year-to-date numbers.
In its weekly update on Monday, LMPD said nonfatal criminal shootings were up 2% year-to-date from 221 to 225. Homicides were up 9% from 78 to 85.
"The community will be able to see our impact through the reduction in gun violence," Bogan said. "And from what I understand, the more custom notifications we make, the more call-ins we make...I believe the neighborhoods and the community will be a force multiplier."
Bogan said he will do an evaluation in about three months to see if the numbers are going down, and if they are accomplishing their goals.
Call-ins for GVI are a meeting at a neutral site where the Commonwealth's Attorney, mayor and parents who have lost a child to gun violence speak to certain individuals GVI has identified. These individuals are most commonly offenders who are on probation or parole.
In March, FOCUS did an investigation into the successes and shortcomings of GVI and found that a legal interpretation from the Kentucky Department of Corrections is making it hard for Louisville officials to mandate attendance at these meetings.
The most recent call-in was on May 30, and the mayor's office says one violent group member attended the meeting.
"If you look at other cities that successfully implemented this, within 6 to 18 months, they were looking at 40-60% reduction in gang shootings," Anthony Piagentini, a Republican Metro Councilman in District 19, said.
Piagentini has nothing against former GVI Director Dondre Jefferson, but he didn't think Jefferson had enough experience for the job.
"He was a very nice man, who was not the right man for the job," he said. "We were on a task force that was part of the decision-making task force, and I'll be frank with you, Mayor Fischer didn't go with the recommendation we made."
Piagentini says he has not met Bogan yet, but he likes what he has heard about his background. He said the GVI director needs to be strong, and hold all the partnering agencies accountable.
"It takes someone with a lot of guts. They're going to have to have a lot of command and leadership experience. And that was tremendously lacking in the whole program," Piagentini said.
Bogan says GVI has done 104 custom notifications in 2023 -- that is when a team of faith leaders, LMPD and Kim Moore from Joshua Community Connectors go meet people who could be the next victims or perpetrators.
Bogan says only one person has been involved with violence again after their custom.
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