During an hour-long WFPL News special on Wednesday, city officials discussed public safety and surging violence in Louisville.
The city of Louisville suffered a record number of homicides and gun violence last year, and this year we’re on pace to break it. Our panel answered questions about policing, drugs, community relationships, poverty and economic growth, and various other factors that contribute to — and that could help curb — violence.
Listen in the player above.
WFPL’s Rick Howlett and Jake Ryan conducted the interview. Our guests were:
- Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer
- Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad
- Dept. of Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods Director Rashaad Abdur-Rahman
"Most of the public's reaction is 'more police officers.' But I can tell you we are not going to arrest our way out of this situation." —Mayor Greg Fischer
"When you talk about an issue like gun violence or like homicide, you have to be thinking about what are those driving indicators. You know, we're talking about poverty, we're talking about structural and systemic racism, we're talking about historical factors that have created a lack of resources in some communities and abundance in others. These things perpetuate violence." —Rashaad Abdur-Rahman
"We're really trying to focus on the places where we see the most crime happening in our community, on the people we believe are involved in the majority of the violent crime that is being perpetrated, and the activity that ties the two together — which in many, many cases is narcotics trafficking. And that has been our focus for the past couple of years." —Steve Conrad
