Jumping into the public safety debate, Democratic mayoral candidate and Metro Councilman David Tandy, D-4, released his plan to fight crime in the city. The agenda focuses on ensuring that existing laws are enforced while placing a greater emphasis on partnerships between communities and law enforcement agencies
“It is imperative that we develop strategies to revitalize blighted areas which breed crime and provide our police with the support they need to ensure their time is spent not on administrative duties, but on the street preventing crime and enforcing our laws,” Tandy said in a press release. “We must also harness the knowledge and energy of citizens across Louisville to create a strong network of neighborhood and block watch organizations to work with the police.”
The plan put a heavy emphasis on the “broken windows” strategy, which is an urban crime fighting policy that cities around the country have adopted, which focuses on seemingly minor offenses such as prostitution, graffiti and aggressive panhandling. Its authors believe that those smaller crimes lead to larger problems if left unchecked by law enforcement and citizens.
Tandy says these types of smaller concerns are the seeds to neighborhood disorder that encourage crime and discourage citizens from getting involved.
“Attacking the problems that breed criminal activities is critical to preventing crime and rebuilding our neighborhoods,” he says.
However, some have questioned whether the initiative really fixes much at all and argue that the policy only criminalizes low-level quality of life offenses.
The Tandy plan also calls for:
- Maximizing citation authority among all city employees for quality of life crimes and violations.
- Having zero tolerance for and rapidly responding to problem properties.
- Working with landlords to improve the safety of rental housing—and to hold those entities accountable when rental housing locations are not safe or are blighting a neighborhood.
- Strategically taking back major streets and business districts from blight and disorder.
- Tackling graffiti, litter, and illegal dumping through enforcement and prevention.
- Repairing broken street lights and potholes, towing abandoned vehicles, and providing other.
- City-administered services in a rapid and responsive manner.
- Implementing strategies like the Methamphetamine Awareness Program that target the production, sale and abuse of drugs
