LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- As Louisville approaches a record number of homicides in 2021, the city is considering new options to end the violence.
Metro Council recently voted to use money from the American Rescue Plan on Violence Intervention programs. And some of the people who have lost loved ones to violence are hopeful it will work.
One of those people is Rose Smith, whose son, Cory Crowe, was shot and killed more than seven years ago.
"I don't really know the gist of it, but I do know it's still an unsolved homicide," Smith said. "He was found shot to death in his car at 25th and Standard Avenue."
Smith is now a volunteer with Moms Demand Action, an organization dedicated to reducing gun violence. And it's dedicated to preventing other families from suffering the same loss.
So Smith and Moms Demand Action are praising the recent move by Metro Council.
"It has been proven in other cities by data that it does help," Smith said.
The Funding Ordinance passed by Metro Council would direct more than $15 million to violence intervention programs.
"We can't arrest our way out of these problems," Metro Council President David James said. "And so we're trying something that's worked in other areas of the country."
James said the Office of Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods will direct the funds and target multiple areas.
"Includes things like violence interrupters, group violence and interdiction, trauma and interdiction within the community," he said.
Metro Council and Moms Demand Action are also splitting the cost of hiring someone to delve into the analytics of the violence.
"By understanding the violence and all the data points that are within, it'll help us attack the problems that we're dealing with," James said.
If it helps reduce violence, Smith believes it's worth every penny.
"It's better to invest in that before it happens," she said. "I really don't want another family, a mother, a father, a child to experience what I'm going through."
Mayor Greg Fischer still has to sign the ordinance before it takes effect.
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