LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- With the new school year just days away, students at dozens of Louisville schools might not have a protective measure that the Louisville Metro Police Department has traditionally provided.
Wednesday evening, LMPD Lt. Col. Andy McClinton told a Metro Council committee that the department is short 27 crossing guards. As a result, at least 30 Louisville area schools might go without crossing guard coverage.
“We have been trying for the past year — year and a half — to hire more traffic guards," he explained. "Like everywhere else, we are having a horrible time, because people aren’t coming out to get jobs.”
The predicament was revealed by LMPD as Councilman Anthony Piagentini, R-19, pushed legislation to codify LMPD's crossing guard duties into city law. The department has traditionally performed the function for Louisville schools — both public and private — and the current city budget continues to fund LMPD's role of providing the crossing guard service.
"I wanted to make a real clear message as we send kids back into school that there is an organization — and that should be Metro Louisville — who is responsible for providing key public safety measure," Piagentini said.
Piagentini filed the ordinance in response to what happened two years ago. In July 2019, citing budget cuts, LMPD said it would no longer provide crossing guards for 12 Jefferson County public and private Catholic schools located in other police jurisdictions, including St. Matthews, Jeffersontown and Shively. The decision was ultimately reversed after public outcry.
"I was incredulous, right, that (Mayor Greg Fischer) could make such a decision so quickly without discussing it with the people most directly impacted by it," Piagentini remembered Wednesday.
Now, as LMPD cites staffing for the current predicament with crossing guards, Piagentini says the reasoning for his ordinance is further underscored.
"I refuse to say because we are having a staffing problem that we're just going to back off of this and make it somebody else's issue or, 'Johnny and parents of Johnny and Jane — good luck,'" he said.
In St. Matthews, which nearly lost crossing guard coverage in the 2019 decision, Mayor Rick Tonini says he believes the responsibility to provide the guards remains that of Louisville Metro Government. At schools like Trinity High School, located along a busy stretch of Shelbyville Road, Tonini says it's clear why the coverage is vital.
"They're protecting the most precious thing we have in our lives: our children," he said. "So very important."
While Tonini said St. Matthews Police could likely fill an empty crossing guard shift for LMPD on occasion, he said his department is too small to fill those duties year-round.
"I mean, literally, we'd be completely stripped of our (daily police) work," he said.
Bill Dieruf, the mayor of Jeffersontown, echoed Tonini's sentiment. Dieruf said, while protecting students from COVID-19 has been a priority, Louisville Metro Government must make protecting them at crosswalks a priority too.
The Wednesday Metro Council committee meeting ended with no resolution on the issue.
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