A new commercial by incumbent mayor Jerry Abramson has many officers upset stating that the 30 second spot is making blatantly false claims about the mayor's ability to tackle the rising crime problem and failure to maintain adequate numbers of officers on the street.
The commercial, titled as "Hands-On Mayor", touts Louisville as "One of the ten safest cities in America". The statistics being quoted by Mayor Abramson are the result of research compiled by Morgan Quinto Press, an independent private research and publishing company. (View the survey)
The survey seems to contradict every other major crime reporting index currently available, including the FBI Crime Statistics report for Louisville, KY.
The FBI Uniform Crime Rate database lists Louisville's crime level as "Worse" than the national average of other cities of similar size. The report specifically cites Louisville as having higher occurrences of murder, rape, robbery, burglary and thefts. Only in one category, aggravated assaults, does Louisville score better than the national average. (View the survey)
The commercial also states that the mayor is fighting crime by "hiring a new police chief and putting more police on the streets". This is the same police chief that officers overwhelmingly supported a "Vote of no confidence" in 2005, with one of the major complaints citing a lack of manpower. (View the survey)
The challenger, Kelly Downard, has received the endorsement of every police and firefighter organization in the area.
"Hands on Mayor " Click To Watch Video