New app tracking gun violence in Louisville goes live

By Curadhan Powell

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    LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WLKY) — Louisville has a new tool to track violence in the city as grim statistics show the city reached a fourth straight year of triple-digit homicides.

The majority of the 140 murder victims so far this year were killed by a gun.

“This is simply far too much, so it’s our hope and belief that this information can lead to action,” said Mayor Craig Greenberg.

The Metro Gun Violence Dashboard went live on the city’s website Tuesday.

It has real-time data from Louisville Metro Police on violent crime in Louisville, with a focus on shootings.

It offers maps, trends and anonymous information on victims dating back to 2010.

Officials say the dashboard is a data-driven approach to increase transparency while reducing gun violence through community solutions.

” Majority of the portion of the work was organizing the data, putting the dashboard together, and making it visually appealing,” said Ivan Benitez, a gun violence data fellow.

Benitez was hired to develop the system and analyze and organize LMPD data. While it aims to give the community a comprehensive scope of the issue, officials hope the dashboard also motivates them to take action.

“When you can actually look at neighborhood data and say the majority of our shootings occur within these small block areas, it allows them to put their collective resources in that smaller area,” said Paul Callahan, director of the Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods.

OSHN partnered with LMPD on the yearlong project.

In addition to outreach, the purpose of the dashboard is to enhance other violence reduction areas, including policy, funding, and deploying resources equitably.

The public safety effort also hopes to expand transparency and accountability. But, city officials say, most importantly, the dashboard is a harsh reality that when it comes to gun violence in Louisville, there is more work to do.

“We must remember that behind all this data are real people, victims and families of victims and the realities all of these individuals deal with after gun violence takes place,” Greenberg said. “This data needs to be top of mind for people so that our city, our state takes action to make Louisville and all cities safer.”

The dashboard is funded through a $100,000 national grant.

Louisville was one of three cities chosen to receive it.

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