Members of the Louisville Metro Council’s Republican caucus unveiled their “Safer Louisville Agenda” Tuesday, saying it's time to go “all in” on public safety. The Republicans, which currently hold just under half the seats on the council, said they plan to file legislation including a ban on panhandling and harsher penalties for illegal use of all-terrain vehicles, or ATVs.
Their public safety agenda is different from Mayor Craig Greenberg’s “Safe Louisville Plan,” which outlines crime reduction strategies.
District 19 Council Member Anthony Piagentini, who heads the caucus, said Republicans hold an unprecedented number of seats on Metro Council after the last election. He said each representative ran on increasing public safety.
“Louisville should be one of the safest large cities in the country and we can get there,” he said.
Republican council members also said they plan to put pressure on the state to expedite the construction of a new juvenile detention center in Louisville.
The council members acknowledged that many of the priorities laid out in the “Safer Louisville Agenda” will require support from state leaders, Democratic Mayor Craig Greenberg and the local criminal justice system. Piagentini said he expects the proposals will have broad support.
Panhandling, ATVs and a streetlight pilot program
Republican Metro Council members say they’re working on updating the city’s ordinances aimed at limiting where people, often those experiencing homelessness, can ask for money.
District 24’s Ginny Mulvey-Woolridge, who was elected last year, said they’ll propose making it illegal for someone in a vehicle to pass money to someone else while on local roadways. They also want to ban all types of collections at roadway intersections, including charitable street solicitation.
“It is not safe for drivers, pedestrians and those soliciting,” Mulvey-Woolridge said.
Council members will have to ensure that any changes to Louisville’s panhandling law don’t run afoul of the state and federal constitutions. Previous versions of Louisville’s ban — as well as Lexington’s — were ruled unconstitutional.
The Metro Council members also want to amend current city laws related to the use of ATVs on public land to “give LMPD more tools for citing persons riding these vehicles illegally.” They also want to enhance penalties for illegal ATV use that damages public land and property.
Mulvey-Woolridge said that members of the Republican Caucus will pool some of their district-specific money to fund periods when LMPD officers will crack down on ATV use in public parks.
“Illegal ATV use is causing damage to both public and private property and creating unsafe conditions,” she said.
Louisville police have raised concerns about illegal ATV activity. Last year, the department said it planned to use drones to address problems connected to alleged misuse of those vehicles, as well as other issues.
Members of the caucus also plan to put some of their district funds, known as Neighborhood Development Funds, toward two streetlight pilot programs in locations with “higher levels of crime,” according to the Safer Louisville Agenda.
While Metro Council Republicans argue street lighting is “one of the most cost-effective ways to deter crime,” studies have mixed. One recent study out of University College London found street lighting may enable crime, rather than hinder it. A 2021 experiment in New York City’s public housing developments, however, found crime-reducing benefits.
Criminal justice system changes
Local Republicans also threw their weight behind building a new jail.
Pointing to a 2023 report that linked a spike in jail deaths to, among other things, an aging and inadequate jail, Piagentini said the problems at the downtown facility are a “structural issue.”
“Nobody can claim that it is appropriate to the task,” he said. “It is woefully inadequate to ensure the safety of the inmates and staff, as well as provide services like mental health and addiction services to those who are incarcerated there.”
The most recent price tag for a new jail in Louisville was estimated to cost taxpayers $300 million. That number came from a 2016 report, meaning the cost is likely significantly higher now.
Criminal justice reform advocates are opposed to building a new and bigger jail in Louisville. While campaigning, Mayor Greenberg told activists he was not interested in using taxpayer money for a new jail.
An area where Greenberg and Republicans agree, however, is on the need to reopen Louisville’s juvenile detention center. The Juvenile Justice Center was closed in 2019 due to budget cuts.
State lawmakers appropriated funding to renovate the center in 2023, but missed a self-imposed deadline for reopening in the summer of 2024.
District 22 Council Member Kevin Bratcher, who sponsored the bill in the state House to fund the center’s reopening, said Tuesday that the state is now saying the facility won’t be ready until late 2027.
“[State leaders] are dropping the ball as far as Louisville is concerned,” he said. “The Department of Juvenile Justice needs to be up here. Pretend like it's a dam getting ready to break and flood the whole city. That’s the emergency status.”
Bratcher said the closure of the Juvenile Justice Center forced the state to start sending kids accused of crimes hours away from Louisville.
“If a child commits a horrible crime in this county right now, that child must be taken two hours away before they can have a counselor talk to them, before their clergy can talk to them,” he said. “It’s just ridiculous.”
Bratcher said he and his fellow Republicans will push the state to expedite construction. He’s filed a resolution that calls on the state to do just that. It’s set to be introduced at the Metro Council meeting on Thursday.
The Republican caucus said it’s also interested in supporting judicial transparency and attempts to make public data around judges’ use of shock probation. Judges granting people convicted of crimes shock probation became a high-profile issue after a man abducted three people and robbed a bank last month after his release.
The full list of proposals for the Safer Louisville Agenda can be found here.
