Louisville Metro Police have yet to make an arrest in more than half of the homicides reported in 2017.
The list shared by police Monday includes 36 criminal homicides from January to Easter Sunday. More than half of the victims were under 30. Twenty of the cases remain open.
The number of criminal homicides reported so far in 2017 is outpacing that of last year, which ended with an all-time record high of slayings, police data show.
In the same time last year, police had reported 29 criminal homicides, according to police data.
On eight separate days this year, multiple people were killed. The deadliest day happened on April 14 when three people were killed, the data show.
The surge in violent crime in recent months is leading Metro Councilman Brent Ackerson to call for more funding for the police department.
Ackerson is sponsoring a resolution which, if approved, would put council support behind his push to bolster the department's budget by $9 million. The department's budget is the city's most expansive, totaling nearly $172 million, according to the city's budget document.
But Anthony Smith, the former director of the city’s Office of Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods and current head of Cities United, said more police is rarely the answer to combating violence.
Smith, in an interview with WFPL News last week, said the focus should be on bolstering education, creating jobs and improving neighborhoods.
"We’ve got to make sure our young kids see a future.”
