State officials hold back Louisville plans for violence intervention
Louisville Metro Council members are asking why so few of the people associated with groups behind the city’s deadly violence are participating in a plan to end that violence.
Group Violence Intervention (GVI) was promoted as way to reduce shootings and the deaths that follow. To work, it needs the involvement of people from groups associated with the violence to participate in “call-ins,” which are meetings with local leaders and law enforcement.
“The city’s working it hard, the office of safe and healthy neighborhoods is working it hard, the police department’s working it hard, local P&P (probation and parole) is working it hard,” Josh Crawford, Criminal Justice Initiatives Director for the George Center for Opportunity said. “But without that mechanism to actually make sure the people are there, you can work it as hard as you want and you’re not going to get the results you want without that mechanism.” A representative of Department of Probation and Parole was present at a special metro council meeting Thursday. But Deputy Commissioner Lisa Lamb, who was scheduled to attend, cancelled. The Metro Council committee chairman Mark Fox called the absence, ‘disappointing.’”