April 22, 2025 • 9 mins
Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Paul Humphrey, a fellow Saint Xavier High School alum, discusses the city's moderized crime reduction plan, technological advances, and improvements to police visibility and mobility throughout the metro.
With Kentucky Derby season upon us, Chief Humphrey explains the need for all officers on duty and the opportunities to strengthen the ranks of officers patrolling on foot and horseback in various neighborhoods.
Chief Humphrey also updates a tragic Easter Sunday event where a man stabbed an LMPD officer who was saved by his protective vest. The assailant was killed by a fellow officer. Body cam footage is forthcoming.
With Kentucky Derby season upon us, Chief Humphrey explains the need for all officers on duty and the opportunities to strengthen the ranks of officers patrolling on foot and horseback in various neighborhoods.
Chief Humphrey also updates a tragic Easter Sunday event where a man stabbed an LMPD officer who was saved by his protective vest. The assailant was killed by a fellow officer. Body cam footage is forthcoming.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ladies and gentleman. The chief of police in Louisville, Kentucky
is one Paul Humphrey. He's an X man. We already
took our state X photo to send him this schools
good to see again.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Chief, you as well, Terry, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Always welcome. We're neighbors. You should drop eye here more often.
I know you're on a busy media tour as always,
because you're always trying to keep the information out there.
We like how much information flows from your administration.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
It's funny how easy the truth is to tell, especially
when you got good people out there doing good work.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
First off, may I ask cal your officer is was
stabbed in a vest on Sunday?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, so's he's doing pretty well. Fortunately it did not
penetrate his vest, so he didn't suffer any injuries. But uh,
you know, he was asking to go back and finish
a shift that night, so we had to tell him,
you know, appreciate the fact that you want to be
out here and doing your job. Take a day or
two off.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Well, that's a good employee. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
So that's the type of people that you have working
at LMPD, people who want to do their job. Take
care of the community no matter what.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
All good, but obviously is that required for everyone to
have that or did he happen to have that vest on?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
No, So we have vests issued to every single officer.
We'll get him a replacement since it's been damaged a
little bit, but we have fortunately recently, we've we've gotten
vests that actually helped prevent rifle rounds from penetrating. So
a little bit added layer of protection considering what's what's
going on in the streets these days.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, but that's part of the uniform is to on.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
That's it, and so we we try to make it
as comfortable as possible. And you need to wear it
every day when you're doing this job. I wear it
every day even though I'm an office rat and I
haven't done police work. I just try to look the
part and pretend like I used to be the police.
So I want somebody to confuse me when they see
me on the street and think of my cop.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
But I sit in office you for events. I know
you've done that before too, I know.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And then they yell at me because I'm going to
get involved in something and but I can't help it.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Part of the reporting process love it. He released a
new crime abatement plan, I don't know what the official
name is, a safety plan for the city and so
what adjustments do you have to make to meet it?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
So Safe Louisville is the overarching safety plan for the city.
You know, we put out our crime plan, our strategic
plan on how to deal with crime from the police
department standpoint, and this is the city's overall crime plan
and how to deal with safety. We know that safety
is fundamental. You can't have anything else until you have safety,
and so it's nice to know that the rest of
(02:31):
the administration is supporting the mission of LMPD and trying
to make sure that all of those things that need
to be taken care of in the city to ensure
safety before it becomes a police problem or taken care of.
And so it's not that anyone, whether it's the city
or it's LMPD specifically, are doing anything new. These are
(02:51):
all evidence based strategies that have been done before. But
to put them in a plan, make sure that everybody
understands their role and we have a system to follow
through and make sure that those things get done and
then we can track it and say all right, is
this working to make sure that we're seeing the improvements
that we desire. That's what is unique to the city
to have everybody on board the same time with the
(03:13):
same level of focus. And I think we're already seeing
some of those results.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
And how often do people get together to check and
see if the stairsteps are working?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
So in LMPD, we're looking at that data daily, but
we have a weekly report out called CompStat to deal
with that week to week, month to month crime and
then we have for that larger part dealing with our
sustained focus improvement areas. We get all of these agencies
from the city together on a monthly basis and they
go over everything and make sure that we're starting to
(03:42):
keep up with Hey, we've got these abandoned houses over here,
are they being boarded? Are they being torn down? We
have street lights that are out, are they getting fixed?
All those types of things that help change the quality
of a neighborhood and give people pride back in the
places that they live.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Is everybody on duty now through the derby and that
the way that goes because they're so many more things
and that you need more police presence.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, so these are the three weeks of the out
of the year that we have no off days, no
vacation days, and we have to move things around and
make sure that we put all the manpower out there
that we can do.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
You call old guys to come on back.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
You know, it's funny, Terry, because we have a rehire program,
and so we get we get officers that have retired
and come back, and we have really gotten a spike
in the past few months of former guys that are
coming back to help. Men and women that have done
this job have a wealth of experience. You know, we
skew towards a young department, even though I don't feel young,
(04:37):
I'm young for a chief, and so it's just indicative
of where we are as an agency. And so to
get some of that experience back on the street. The
officer that I was just talking about in that incident
in the fifth Division, he's got twenty five, twenty seven
years on and he's a rehire. The other officer that
was actually involved in the shooting, he came out of
(04:57):
the class after me. He's got eighteen years experience. He's
ridden same patrol beat in the fifth Division his entire career,
except for a very short period of time where he's
a detective. That is absolutely unheard of these days. And
to have that level of experience riding the beat out
there is you can't you can't put a value on that.
So to get those those former officers back on the street.
(05:19):
Can't talk enough about how great that is.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Right, And obviously all these events coming up require more
police presence. It's also springtime and that means more kids
are out doing what they do, and so you just
have to have a stronger police presence. I've noticed more
in downtown. Is that my imagination, It is not your imagination.
That is part of our crime plan. That is part
of making sure that everybody feels safe coming downtown. We
(05:42):
know that, you know, downtown is Louisville's neighborhood where neighbor
we're city and neighborhoods. Everybody should feel welcome downtown. You
should feel comfortable when you see the police around, knowing
that we're going to take care of you.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
And so that's that's part of the plan.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
More people out, more mobility too, I'm talking about officers. Yes,
different ways to get around, I.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Mean to go downtown. Yeah, you're seeing the mounted patrol yeah,
I saw them in Central Park the other day down
in the fourth Division. You'll see them down here on weekends.
You'll see our downtown area patrol on their side by
sides and four wheelers and bikes. So the more that
we can get officers out there, the more the interaction
that we have between officers and the community, the better.
(06:19):
I think it helps officers know that people appreciate what
they're doing because they are they're working their tails off
to make sure that we're safe, and it helps make
sure that the citizens feel like the police are here
to take care of And.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
What are you feeling in terms of applications for police officers.
You're starting to see a tick up now.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, So good news is that our applications are up
almost ten percent a year to date, so that's a
great thing. So we'll see what happens in this next
recruit class. But I'm hoping to have more than the
twelve or thirteen that we've been graduating in the past
few classes. So that next class will start in June.
We're constantly taking applications and interesting thing that we're doing
(06:57):
that we started a couple of years ago. Our recruits
right now that will be graduating soon. They're actually in Washington,
d C. So we take them through a law enforcement
program at the African American Heritage Museum and the Holocaust
Museum so that they can see the role of law
enforcement and making sure that we understand the impact of
our profession and when it might go awry, but we
(07:19):
understand the responsibility that we have protecting constitutional rights, keeping
people safe, and making sure that those bad actors do
not become the dominant force in our society.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
And you're also a learning chief too though, because I
know you collab with a lot of other chiefs and
other administrative people from police forces around America. You go
to various things. So what's new in crime fighting in America?
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Well, it's data and technology. How you're making use of
the data that you have. We just incorporated a new
data system called Peregrine, where we can try to get
all of our data in one spot, readily accessible, which
means that we can make adjustments to our crime strategies
on the fly, as opposed to waiting a week or
so for the data to come from our tech guys
(08:04):
and our data analysts. Every major has it at their
fingertips to be able to say, all right, what has
happened in the last twenty four hours forty eight hours
last week, that we can make sure that we are
addressing the problems that we need to address. The problems
you see in the Louisville are not any different from
anywhere else. So it's important that we build those relationships
in other communities and other cities, particularly major cities, to say,
(08:27):
all right, this is working in Indie or that's not
working in Austin.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
So we know what's going to be the next best thing.
All right, chee if it's great to visit with you again.
I know we've run out of time here, but next
time we need to talk a little bit about Pat
Kelsey's new roster.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Oh my gosh, did you see the video from a
casing that got put out today?
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yes, hey, let's go. I'm feeling it. Yeah, we all
have to see what's going but it seems to change
hour to hour. I just want the season to get
here so we can just get it rolling.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Right. I'm sorry to take more time, but you remember
when Lamar was here. It was so frustrating at the
end of a game because you were like, dang, I
gotta wait another week to watch this got play again? Right.
That's how I feel about this basketball team. That's how
I feel about the baseball team that's gonna beat up
on UK tonight. You just get excited when you see
people doing good things, when they're good at their job.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
That's the chief of police in Louisville who just said that. So,
the Chief of Police Lexington, you were allowed to call
in if you'd like to reply to that. Six thirty tonight,
Louisville at Kentucky Proud Park, taken on UK tonight in baseball.
We'll see how that goes. Gat see again, Chief, you
two Terry. That's LMPD Chief Paul Humpherty.
Ladies and gentleman. The chief of police in Louisville, Kentucky
is one Paul Humphrey. He's an X man. We already
took our state X photo to send him this schools
good to see again.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Chief, you as well, Terry, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Always welcome. We're neighbors. You should drop eye here more often.
I know you're on a busy media tour as always,
because you're always trying to keep the information out there.
We like how much information flows from your administration.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
It's funny how easy the truth is to tell, especially
when you got good people out there doing good work.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
First off, may I ask cal your officer is was
stabbed in a vest on Sunday?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, so's he's doing pretty well. Fortunately it did not
penetrate his vest, so he didn't suffer any injuries. But uh,
you know, he was asking to go back and finish
a shift that night, so we had to tell him,
you know, appreciate the fact that you want to be
out here and doing your job. Take a day or
two off.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Well, that's a good employee. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
So that's the type of people that you have working
at LMPD, people who want to do their job. Take
care of the community no matter what.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
All good, but obviously is that required for everyone to
have that or did he happen to have that vest on?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
No, So we have vests issued to every single officer.
We'll get him a replacement since it's been damaged a
little bit, but we have fortunately recently, we've we've gotten
vests that actually helped prevent rifle rounds from penetrating. So
a little bit added layer of protection considering what's what's
going on in the streets these days.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, but that's part of the uniform is to on.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
That's it, and so we we try to make it
as comfortable as possible. And you need to wear it
every day when you're doing this job. I wear it
every day even though I'm an office rat and I
haven't done police work. I just try to look the
part and pretend like I used to be the police.
So I want somebody to confuse me when they see
me on the street and think of my cop.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
But I sit in office you for events. I know
you've done that before too, I know.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And then they yell at me because I'm going to
get involved in something and but I can't help it.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Part of the reporting process love it. He released a
new crime abatement plan, I don't know what the official
name is, a safety plan for the city and so
what adjustments do you have to make to meet it?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
So Safe Louisville is the overarching safety plan for the city.
You know, we put out our crime plan, our strategic
plan on how to deal with crime from the police
department standpoint, and this is the city's overall crime plan
and how to deal with safety. We know that safety
is fundamental. You can't have anything else until you have safety,
and so it's nice to know that the rest of
(02:31):
the administration is supporting the mission of LMPD and trying
to make sure that all of those things that need
to be taken care of in the city to ensure
safety before it becomes a police problem or taken care of.
And so it's not that anyone, whether it's the city
or it's LMPD specifically, are doing anything new. These are
(02:51):
all evidence based strategies that have been done before. But
to put them in a plan, make sure that everybody
understands their role and we have a system to follow
through and make sure that those things get done and
then we can track it and say all right, is
this working to make sure that we're seeing the improvements
that we desire. That's what is unique to the city
to have everybody on board the same time with the
(03:13):
same level of focus. And I think we're already seeing
some of those results.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
And how often do people get together to check and
see if the stairsteps are working?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
So in LMPD, we're looking at that data daily, but
we have a weekly report out called CompStat to deal
with that week to week, month to month crime and
then we have for that larger part dealing with our
sustained focus improvement areas. We get all of these agencies
from the city together on a monthly basis and they
go over everything and make sure that we're starting to
(03:42):
keep up with Hey, we've got these abandoned houses over here,
are they being boarded? Are they being torn down? We
have street lights that are out, are they getting fixed?
All those types of things that help change the quality
of a neighborhood and give people pride back in the
places that they live.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Is everybody on duty now through the derby and that
the way that goes because they're so many more things
and that you need more police presence.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, so these are the three weeks of the out
of the year that we have no off days, no
vacation days, and we have to move things around and
make sure that we put all the manpower out there
that we can do.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
You call old guys to come on back.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
You know, it's funny, Terry, because we have a rehire program,
and so we get we get officers that have retired
and come back, and we have really gotten a spike
in the past few months of former guys that are
coming back to help. Men and women that have done
this job have a wealth of experience. You know, we
skew towards a young department, even though I don't feel young,
(04:37):
I'm young for a chief, and so it's just indicative
of where we are as an agency. And so to
get some of that experience back on the street. The
officer that I was just talking about in that incident
in the fifth Division, he's got twenty five, twenty seven
years on and he's a rehire. The other officer that
was actually involved in the shooting, he came out of
(04:57):
the class after me. He's got eighteen years experience. He's
ridden same patrol beat in the fifth Division his entire career,
except for a very short period of time where he's
a detective. That is absolutely unheard of these days. And
to have that level of experience riding the beat out
there is you can't you can't put a value on that.
So to get those those former officers back on the street.
(05:19):
Can't talk enough about how great that is.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Right, And obviously all these events coming up require more
police presence. It's also springtime and that means more kids
are out doing what they do, and so you just
have to have a stronger police presence. I've noticed more
in downtown. Is that my imagination, It is not your imagination.
That is part of our crime plan. That is part
of making sure that everybody feels safe coming downtown. We
(05:42):
know that, you know, downtown is Louisville's neighborhood where neighbor
we're city and neighborhoods. Everybody should feel welcome downtown. You
should feel comfortable when you see the police around, knowing
that we're going to take care of you.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
And so that's that's part of the plan.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
More people out, more mobility too, I'm talking about officers. Yes,
different ways to get around, I.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Mean to go downtown. Yeah, you're seeing the mounted patrol yeah,
I saw them in Central Park the other day down
in the fourth Division. You'll see them down here on weekends.
You'll see our downtown area patrol on their side by
sides and four wheelers and bikes. So the more that
we can get officers out there, the more the interaction
that we have between officers and the community, the better.
(06:19):
I think it helps officers know that people appreciate what
they're doing because they are they're working their tails off
to make sure that we're safe, and it helps make
sure that the citizens feel like the police are here
to take care of And.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
What are you feeling in terms of applications for police officers.
You're starting to see a tick up now.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, So good news is that our applications are up
almost ten percent a year to date, so that's a
great thing. So we'll see what happens in this next
recruit class. But I'm hoping to have more than the
twelve or thirteen that we've been graduating in the past
few classes. So that next class will start in June.
We're constantly taking applications and interesting thing that we're doing
(06:57):
that we started a couple of years ago. Our recruits
right now that will be graduating soon. They're actually in Washington,
d C. So we take them through a law enforcement
program at the African American Heritage Museum and the Holocaust
Museum so that they can see the role of law
enforcement and making sure that we understand the impact of
our profession and when it might go awry, but we
(07:19):
understand the responsibility that we have protecting constitutional rights, keeping
people safe, and making sure that those bad actors do
not become the dominant force in our society.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
And you're also a learning chief too though, because I
know you collab with a lot of other chiefs and
other administrative people from police forces around America. You go
to various things. So what's new in crime fighting in America?
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Well, it's data and technology. How you're making use of
the data that you have. We just incorporated a new
data system called Peregrine, where we can try to get
all of our data in one spot, readily accessible, which
means that we can make adjustments to our crime strategies
on the fly, as opposed to waiting a week or
so for the data to come from our tech guys
(08:04):
and our data analysts. Every major has it at their
fingertips to be able to say, all right, what has
happened in the last twenty four hours forty eight hours
last week, that we can make sure that we are
addressing the problems that we need to address. The problems
you see in the Louisville are not any different from
anywhere else. So it's important that we build those relationships
in other communities and other cities, particularly major cities, to say,
(08:27):
all right, this is working in Indie or that's not
working in Austin.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
So we know what's going to be the next best thing.
All right, chee if it's great to visit with you again.
I know we've run out of time here, but next
time we need to talk a little bit about Pat
Kelsey's new roster.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Oh my gosh, did you see the video from a
casing that got put out today?
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yes, hey, let's go. I'm feeling it. Yeah, we all
have to see what's going but it seems to change
hour to hour. I just want the season to get
here so we can just get it rolling.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Right. I'm sorry to take more time, but you remember
when Lamar was here. It was so frustrating at the
end of a game because you were like, dang, I
gotta wait another week to watch this got play again? Right.
That's how I feel about this basketball team. That's how
I feel about the baseball team that's gonna beat up
on UK tonight. You just get excited when you see
people doing good things, when they're good at their job.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
That's the chief of police in Louisville who just said that. So,
the Chief of Police Lexington, you were allowed to call
in if you'd like to reply to that. Six thirty tonight,
Louisville at Kentucky Proud Park, taken on UK tonight in baseball.
We'll see how that goes. Gat see again, Chief, you
two Terry. That's LMPD Chief Paul Humpherty.
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