Violent crime rates are dropping faster in Louisville areas where a city program has worked to prevent shootings compared to the city overall, according to a new report.
The city’s Office of Violence Prevention released a report Monday that analyzed recent efforts to improve areas with the highest levels of gun violence. These community violence intervention sites include parts of the Russell, Taylor Berry, Newburg and Algonquin neighborhoods. While homicides in these areas between 2021 and 2024 remained mostly flat, nonfatal shootings were down by nearly a quarter.
Ashley Webb, deputy director of the Office of Violence Intervention, said data for this year shows even bigger improvements: Violent crime across the four sites in the first half of 2025 was down 62% compared to the same period over the past four years.
“We’re meeting people where they’re at through credible messengers that are intervening in high-conflict situations before they have the ability to arise to violent events,” Webb said at a press conference.
Webb said at least part of this progress can be attributed to city programs that treat shootings and violent crime like public health crises.
The city has employed the Pivot to Peace model in all four of the community violence intervention sites since the program was founded in 2022, deploying trained gun violence interrupters who try to prevent conflicts from escalating to violence. In partnership with Goodwill Kentucky and Volunteers of America, the gun violence interrupters work to mediate and offer resources, like mentorship and case management.
And they offer alternatives to people considered to be at high risk for being involved in gang violence. Counselors can work with them on job training, school attendance and family relationships, among other things.
Violence interrupters have met with more than 34,000 high-risk people in Louisville. Of them, 144 people have accepted case management, according to the report.
“This is working,” Webb said. “The recidivism rates for those individuals that outreach is working with across the city are significantly lower than that of the national average.”
The Pivot to Peace model also includes other programs, like street outreach and the Community Sanctuary Project.
The city’s Office of Violence Prevention is also partnering with UofL Hospital to offer extra help to patients who arrive with violence-related injuries. Trained intervention specialists offer a variety of resources to the patients and their families, including counseling, substance use treatment and help securing stable housing and employment.
Of the 628 patients that arrived at UofL Hospital with a gunshot or stab wound in 2024 and 2025, 85% agreed to speak with an intervention specialist, according to the report.
Gun violence in Louisville reached unprecedented levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of homicides peaked in 2021, when 177 people were killed.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said Monday that homicides and shootings have been on the decline since the pandemic, with homicides down 22% this year compared to the same point in 2024. But he said that’s not enough.
“There still is too much violent crime that happens in our city,” Greenberg said. “We wake up too many mornings hearing about something that happened overnight, go to too many memorials for victims who are lost and families who are suffering.”
The city is continuing to invest in the Pivot to Peace model in the four community violence intervention sites.
City leaders also allocated funding in the most recent budget to establish a new site in Louisville’s California neighborhood.
The progress report on the city’s violence prevention strategies is available here.
