LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Police officers are supposed to conduct SIA's or self initiated activity, the amount of traffic stops they conduct on their own.
There was a huge drop in these Self Initiated Activities recently.
The open records request we made is from April 7 to June 15 and shows LMPD's Self-Initiated Activity.
From April 7 to May 4, Self Initiated Activities range around 2,800. Between May 5 and the 11 is when we see a small drop. The week jets down to 2,128 self initiated activities. We can also see the day by day numbers:
May 9: 324
May 10: 257
May 11: 160
It stays that way until June 15. So what happened during this week?
Police Chief Steve Conrad presented his traffic stop changes on May 9,"That is why your commanders and I have put together the policy changes you're seeing today. None of these policy changes are meant to keep you from your mission of preventing and controlling crime. Nor are these policies designed to put you in harms way. You're still expected to be tactically sound and vigilant against all threats. These policies need to strike a balance between the concerns of the community and the need for us to conduct traffic stops for both safety and investigative reasons."
Since his press conference, police have been conducting less self initiated activities. The week after the meeting, self initiated activity went down to 1,293, less than half the 2,850 that were conducted a week before the conference. Each week since has fallen around 1,400.
We did reach out to LMPD about this drop in self initiated activity, they declined to comment.
Those traffic stop changes are supposed to be implemented next month.
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