LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Big crowds and bumper-to-bumper traffic had West Broadway at a standstill late Saturday night into the early morning hours of Sunday.
It was a rare resurgence of Broadway cruising, which had been banned by city officials for more than a decade due to violent incidents.
Metro Council President David James said Louisville Metro Police should have done more to prevent it.
"There were crowds of people, people literally blocking the street with vehicles and their physical bodies, dancing in the street, shooting guns, just doing things that are unacceptable," James said. “It was totally out of control.”
Louisville Metro Police told WHAS11 News they were there, trying to divert traffic but James says they didn’t do enough.
"It's a long-standing tradition and the police are there every year to try to make sure services and emergency response is able to be delivered by the city – last night that didn't happen. So we put people in jeopardy," he said.
LMPD says they "were aware of the potential for people to be out and had plans in place" including "lot clearing and traffic diversion."
But they said they didn't have the patrol staffing that they typically do, because typically they staff for Derby weekend and Derby didn't happen.
"Traditionally, there are about 100 officers assigned to the Broadway corridor detail to make sure that traffic keeps moving, to make sure emergency services – police, fire, EMS or even TARC – can still move as they're supposed to protect and serve the citizens," James said.
The other issue was the lack of social distancing, something James thinks could come with consequences.
"The fallout from that in a few days could be very, very bad when we think of COVID-19."
An LMPD spokesperson said:
"The issue on Broadway was that more than 10 people were gathered and social distancing was not possible in those groups. We can cite that as a violation of the Governor’s orders. We have asked people to police themselves and follow the governor’s orders, rather than issue citations."
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