Greenberg said the dashboard is meant to allow for transparency to better inform the public about gun violence trends.
“In order to reduce gun violence in our city. It's important that we understand everything we can about how gun violence happens, why it happens and where it happens,” he said.
The gun violence dashboard presents data like year-to-date figures, victim demographics and mapping visuals from nonfatal shootings and homicides. The reports are interactive, with the data organized in line graphs, pie charts and tables. The statistics can be filtered by zip code, neighborhood and Louisville Metro Council district.
The data is published in collaboration with the Louisville Metro Police Department and the Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods under a grant from the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, a national organization dedicated to curbing gun violence.
Ivan Benitez, OSHN’s data fellow, created the dashboard to be user-friendly and readable. He said he has been able to collect over a decade of gun violence data from LMPD’s record management system.
“When looking at 12 and 13 years worth of data, it can be overwhelming," he said. “So [the dashboard is] just appealing in a way that it could just be readable when just looking at it very quickly.”
OSHN Director Paul Callahan said the dashboard can be used as a tool for community partners to develop strategies and resources toward violence prevention programs.
“In the past, when people access police data, it's typically academics that are doing research projects,” he said. "What makes this unique and different is this data is presented to community partners. They can actually use this data to do real work in the community.”
Emily McKinley, LMPD’s Assistant Chief of the Accountability and Improvement Bureau, said she wants to use the dashboard to build a stronger relationship between local police and community partners when addressing gun violence.
“Collaboration of diverse minds along with evidence-based solutions are paramount to solving complex problems within communities, and violent crime is one of the most complex problems that we face here in Louisville,” she said.
McKinley said she hopes to use the dashboard to help LMPD learn where to direct its resources that promote safer communities.
Greenberg hopes the dashboard can help decrease gun violence rates with the help of community partners and city government.
According to the dashboard, there have been 116 homicides from gunshot wounds and 320 nonfatal shootings so far this year.
