Louisville ends city-wide emergency curfew after seeing significant drop in gun crimes
LOUISVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – The emergency curfew for the city of Louisville is no longer in effect after the Board of Aldermen allowed it to expire in late July.
People spraying houses with bullets and gunfire ringing out through the night were behind the curfew, which the city established June 7th.
“We were, leading up to the time of the curfew, dealing with as a city, somewhere between three and four felony cases per week,” Mayor Will Hill says. “Primarily with midnight activity.”
Running from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. the first two weeks before changing to 11 p.m. to 4 a.m., it applied to all citizens, except for first responders or those traveling to work or school.
“The curfew gave us another tool for probable cause to be able to stop or question people that were out past the hours of the curfew,” says Louisville Police Chief Sean Holdiness.
In the roughly 40-days that followed, Mayor Hill says they only had about four felony cases total, and calls to the Louisville Police Department have gone down significantly.
“It was mostly juveniles that were committing these shots fired calls,” Chief Holdiness says. “Due to the curfew and after the arrest of these juveniles, the call volume for that particular call went to non-existent.”
Since the curfew started, LPD says the only reports of gunfire have been accidental and the city has had zero drive-shootings into homes.
Which is why the Board of Aldermen finally allowed it to expire July 19.
“It was not ever intended to be permanent or long term, although we are looking at the continuation,” Mayor Hill says. “We’re looking at the data as it goes on.”
Chief Holdiness says they arrested more than five juveniles they believe were responsible for the majority of their shots fired calls.
“We have been able to put ankle monitors on each of these juveniles and update the system to where they’re under surveillance,” he says.
The chief says they could not have made this kind of progress without the public’s cooperation.
“I’m glad that the community was supportive,” Chief Holdiness says. “We don’t want to overextend our authority, because this is not a police state. These are police officers. We work for the citizens of Louisville.”
Both the mayor and police chief say they could bring the curfew back at some point if necessary, but they agree that it is most effective in smaller doses.
