Tagged: violence prevent task force

J. Blaine Hudson is resigning  at the end December as dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Louisville, a post he's held since 2004.

Hudson took a leave of absence in August for medical reasons. He told faculty then in an e-mail that he'd had cranial surgery but his prognosis was positive.

Louisville Metro Council members of both parties are questioning Mayor Greg Fischer for creating a new director for violence prevention in the wake of a West End shooting spree.

A 37-member task force group was formed after three people were fatally shot  in the Parkland neighborhood in May. Among the group’s dozens of recommendations was hiring a full-time coordinator to work on violence prevention and implement efforts in city government.

But Democratic and Republican lawmakers are unsure about the cost and argue the position is redundant because Metro Government already has a chief of police and director of public safety.

Councilman Kelly Downard, R-16, says Fischer was right to respond to the rash of homicides, but that his office hasn’t communicated what the new director is expected to do or what experience they should have.

"Is this the answer? Just to hire somebody? I mean throwing money to someone who has knowledge of the community and can mediate—I mean my gosh," he says. "The whole job description sounds like it was written by somebody who just wanted to use adjectives, but not any concrete experience."

In its first official public action, Louisville's Violence Prevention Work Group has put out a call for volunteers for a new crisis response team.

As the name implies, the response team will be sent to crisis situations (typically crime scenes) to work with bystanders, family members, witnesses, etc. and help alleviate the trauma. The team would ideally help prevent the actions that spurred the creation of the Violence Prevention Work Group in the first place.