While robberies, sexual assaults and aggravated assaults are down in Louisville this year, homicides have spiked -- a fact that Louisville Metro Police Chief Robert White blamed on increased activity among gang members.
White said yesterday that there have been gangs in Louisville for years, but he believes shootings and homicides have gone up in recent months in part because of gang activity. There have been 28 homicides this year, 10 more than at this time last year.
White did not link a specific number of homicides to gang activity, but he said of gangs, "They have become perhaps a little more aggressive in their actions."
His comments came as he was announcing a new Violent Crime Team, which is intended to combat violence in the three divisions that account for most of the city's murders, sexual assaults, robberies and aggravated assaults.
The task force of 15 officers and commanders will focus in the first, second and fourth divisions, which span downtown and western Louisville, as well as some areas south of the Watterson Expressway.
Typically, the department has a task force aimed at reducing violent crimes, which traditionally go up during the summer months. White said this year, the task force is going to concentrate on western Louisville because statistics show that is the area of greatest need.
Overall, White said crime is down 7 percent this year, including reductions in both violent and property crime.
Even with that decrease, White said the crime is concentrated in three main areas of the city.
During 2008, 70 percent of the city's homicides occurred in the first, second and fourth divisions, a number that has remained constant in the first four months of this year, White said.
Last year, 64 percent of the robberies, 50 percent of the city's aggravated assaults and 45 percent of all sexual assaults occurred in those three divisions. Those numbers remain high in the first part of this year as well, White said.
This new violent crime team will give the department flexibility in addressing hot spots, White said. They will be able to work in uniform to provide extra police presence, as well as undercover to conduct intelligence or make arrests. The team will include one officer or detective from each patrol division, as well as detectives from narcotics, intelligence and a gang expert.
White said the team will use various tactics to address the problems in the target areas.
"We have to look at where our issues are," White said. "We have to target the hot spots."
White also announced a new effort by the department to increase public education about domestic violence, which accounted for several of last year's homicides.
In partnership with the metro Office for Women and the Center for Women and Families, the department has developed a brochure that outlines resources for victims and a post card that all patrol officers will carry with them to hand out as needed. The materials have numbers to call for assistance and information about how to get an order of protection. While White said officers remain aggressive about charging people with domestic violence offenses, he wanted to increase the public education component of what officers do and the brochures will help with that.