Louisville's mayor says city 'definitely' has a gang problem

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- With a number of shootings and murders, there's been a spike in violence in Louisville -- and Louisville's mayor says gangs are "definitely" to blame for some of that violence.

"We definitely have a gang problem here," Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg told WDRB on Thursday. "Roughly 30 percent of our homicides are group- or gang-related."

The Louisville Metro Police Department releases the most recent shooting and homicide numbers every Monday. So far this year, there have been 176 criminal shootings in Louisville in which the victims survived. That's up 9% from last year. Additionally, there have been 71 homicides so far this year, up 6% from last year.

LMPD Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey said police are looking at how they can alter their approach to stop the violence.

"Violence and keeping people safe — addressing gun violence, in particular — is one of our priorities," he said. "We can say the cliché things of 'any shooting is one shooting too many,' but it is. That's a true statement. It's something we say for a reason, so we're going to continue to adjust our (communication) strategies, adjust our equipment — our tactics — to make sure we address that."

Humphrey said when the department sees a trend or a spike in crime, it considers what can be done differently to keep the community safe.

"We know we're going to get ebbs and flows in violent crime, based on some things we can control and some things that we can't," he said. "Something as simple as the weather can affect how shootings happen. So we understand once weather gets warmer, we're going to have to have to make sure how we deploy our resources and our officers to what's going to be an anticipated spike in violent crime."

Greenberg said there are options for people who want to get out of violent gangs -- and consequences if they choose not to.

"Earlier this week, I met with our Group Violence Intervention program," Greenberg said. "We had a call-in. It's a problem to reach out to individuals who are in gangs or groups, let them know we know what they are doing, let them know the consequences if they continue, what those are, but also provide resources support and help to help them find a new group to affiliate with."