Gun Violence Task Force Recommendations Discussed in Council Committee
Kenneth Payne of ONE Lexington speaks on new grant program to addresss gun violence. Source: Lexington, KY City Website
In April 9th’s Social Services and Public Safety (SSPS) Committee meeting, District 11 Councilmember Jennifer Reynolds presented policy recommendations from the Gun Violence Task Force that aimed to address gun violence in Lexington.
Ultimately, after Council discussion, Councilmember Reynolds decided to leave the recommendations in Committee. The Task Force will continue to meet and attach more concrete details to the recommendations, including budgetary requests, parameters for programs or grants, and more.
Recommendations:
The Task Forceproposed the following recommendations for LFUCG to address gun violence:
LFUCG should define gun violence as a public health crisis.
LFUCG and the community should support a three-month-long gun violence awareness campaign, starting with the annual Antonio Franklin Jr. VIP Peace Walk in April through the end of June, which is National Gun Violence Awareness Month.
City-owned community centers should expand access and services by extending operating hours into evenings, offering more community programs, and allowing community and neighborhood groups to use the centers for their programming.
ONE Lexington should provide Councilmembers with information on how they can be best involved in cases of gun violence in their districts.
Council should continue to support co-response and mobile crisis teams, such as the Community Paramedicine Program.
LFUCG should establish a grant pool to fund victim services for families impacted by gun violence.
LFUCG should expand its scope to address gun violence victims of all ages. As of now, ONE Lexington only addresses victims and gun violence incidents for those aged 13-29.
Council should fund group counseling sessions for youth impacted by gun violence.
LFUCG should communicate its existing gun violence services to the community and provide full budgetary transparency.
The presentation also highlighted a long list of informal suggestions from the Task Force. You can view the presentation starting on page 17 of this packet. These recommendations will be refined over the next few months and brought back to Council for further consideration.
The Gun Violence Task Force was created by Councilmember Reynolds in August 2023 and has been meeting regularly since then to discuss ways that LFUCG can help prevent gun violence and provide services to survivors and others impacted by gun violence.
The Gun Violence Task Force is comprised of representatives from Council, the Lexington Police and Fire Departments, ONE Lexington, the Fayette County Attorney and Sheriff’s office, several community organizations, and gun violence survivors.
2021 and 2022 saw large spikes in gun violence and homicides in Lexington.
According to the Lexington Police Department’s Crime Data page, there were 37 homicide cases in 2021 and 44 in 2022.
2023 saw a sharp decrease to 24 cases - one of only three of the past ten years that the City has reported 24 or fewer homicides.
2021 and 2022 had 137 and 119 non-homicide shooting incident investigations respectively, while 2023 had 84 incident investigations.
You can watch the SSPS Committee meeting recording on LexTV.
