LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Friday night, Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Steve Conrad had a serious warning about the consequences of Metro Council's Thursday night vote to reject a tax hike and, instead, make $35 million in cuts from next year's budget alone.
"We will see bleeding, and unfortunately, it's not figurative," the chief said. "The things that I guess I've likened the changes in the police department to is a slow train wreck, and that is still an appropriate example of what will occur."
Chief Conrad is disappointed because he says LMPD is on the hook for a big chunk of the $35 million.
"For the police department, it's $7.9 million," he said.
He says he'll primarily make those cuts by canceling entire classes of police recruits.
"We had a class that was scheduled to start in June. We will not be hiring that class. Another in September and another in February," he said. "So it will be June of 2020 before we hire another police recruit."
Conrad estimates those three lost classes will equate to about 120 recruits who won't be hired. To fill that void, the chief is preparing to scrap a handful of patrols and divisions.
"Our school resource officers, our mounted patrol unit, those are two that come to mind most quickly, but we've talked about even doing changes with community policing," he said.
But that's not all. After the vote, Conrad says he's also in the process of canceling ShotSpotter, a high-tech program that pinpoints shootings.
"That will be an investigative tool and a community outreach tool that will be gone," he said. "We've been, I think, happy with the results of that program. It was never intended to result in lots of arrests, but it has resulted in some."
He says it could be gone before July 1, the beginning of next fiscal year.
If cuts continue in future years he says his department will take an even bigger hit.
"We could find ourselves reducing the size of units that we count on to help keep us safe: a smaller Ninth Mobile Division, a smaller Narcotics Division, a smaller SWAT team, because we will need those experienced officers helping us with patrol," Conrad said.
He fears the effects of all those changes.
"I'm afraid that we will start seeing increased crime, slower response to in-progress crime, slower response to 911 calls, and all of that will equate to increases in crime," the chief said.
Even though the chief would disagree, some who voted against the tax hike have said it is possible to make enough cuts without hurting LMPD.
"Talking to the chief is not terribly valuable as he is simply reiterating the Mayor's talking points," Councilman Anthony Piagentini (R-19) said Friday. "This is all part and parcel of their scare tactics before we have the first budget meeting to talk through the LMPD budget."
To see the full list of cuts Mayor Greg Fischer proposed in February, CLICK HERE.
Copyright 2019 WDRB Media. All rights reserved.
