Addressing Louisville's Record Breaking Spike in Violent Crime

If it feels like every night when you turn on the news you’re seeing reports of a new shooting, your intuition would be right—Louisville averaged nearly two non-fatal shootings a day in the first six months of 2021, 335 in total. Even more troubling, Louisville averaged over 16 homicides per 100,000 residents over the same time period. That is a murder rate 38% higher than Chicago’s. This all comes as LMPD is more than 240 officers short.

On June 13, our city reached a grim milestone; our 90thhomicide for the year. This is now the fifth time in the last six years in which Louisville has had more than 90 homicides per year, but prior to 2016, to find a year in which Louisville had 90 homicides, you would have to go all the way back to 1979. In fact, between 1980 and 2015 Louisville averaged 54 homicides a year. From 2015-2020 Louisville has averaged 107 homicides per year, nearly double the average of the previous 25 years.

These homicides aren’t just numbers. They are children like 3-year-old Trinity Randolph, who was gunned down while playing in her “Frozen” dollhouse. They are fathers like Tyrese Garvin, who was murdered while walking home after holding his newborn twins for the first time. And they are brothers and sons like nineteen-year-old Christian Gwynn and seven-year-old Dequante Hobbs, Jr.

Right now it seems things are only getting worse, as Louisville is caught in a cycle of shootings followed by retaliatory gunplay. However, in the midst of all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope.

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