LOUISVILLE, Ky. — What can be done to make Louisville a safer place to live and work? That question will be a focus of a public safety town hall Tuesday evening. 

What You Need To Know

  • LMPD Chief Erika Shields will speak at a public safety town hall

  • Christopher 2x will speak about his trip to Washington D.C. to speak to lawmakers about the Future Healers program

  • There will be a second town hall in Nov.

  • The town hall Tuesday is at 5:30 p.m. at the University of Louisville's Shelby Campus

Louisville is facing a record number of homicides with 155 reported so far this year. That exceeds the 122 homicides last year, and there are still two and a half months left in 2021.

LMPD Chief Erika Shields is set to speak at a public safety town hall Tuesday. It's likely she will address the homicide and violent crime prevention efforts. She spoke about that during one of LMPD's recent On The Record podcast episodes.

“One is we started a violent crime detail. We targeted two specific areas of the city that were seeing such a horrendous amount of homicides," said Shields. "We managed to reel that back in. Is it acceptable where were are at? No. Are we going in the right direction? Yes.”

We can also expect to hear from Louisville activist, and executive director of Game Changers, Christopher 2X. He said council members approached him about speaking at the town hall recently, asking him to talk about his recent trip to Washington D.C.

On that trip, Christopher 2X and two UofL Health surgeons met with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.). The bipartisan conversation focused on the Future Healers program, aimed at helping kids experiencing secondhand trauma due to gun violence.

“I think the overall goal for us lastly is to make a clear statement there are kids especially in this community and around the country who suffer from secondhand trauma due to gunfire," Christopher 2x told Spectrum News 1 right before that trip.

The mayor's Chief of Community Building, Keith Talley, and Pegasus Institute executive director Josh Crawford are also scheduled to speak.

The meeting is at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Union Ballroom (Room 218AB) of Founders Hall on the University of Louisville's Shelby Campus. Guests must wear a face mask to enter.