Community Detectives Implementation Plan

Assignment: Permanently assigned to one council district (not rotating)

Cost: About $170,000 per detective a year before overtime: pay, pension, health care and payroll taxes. This is my estimate from LMPD’s own budget (Louisville Metro adopted FY2026-27 budget: LMPD’s four personnel lines total $201.8M, less the cost of civilian staff, over 1,010 sworn officers). These are detectives LMPD already employs, reassigned to the districts, so it is not new money.

Reporting: Works with mini substation officers AND traditional LMPD divisions

Focus: Prevention first, investigation second

7:00 AM – Morning Briefing

Reviews overnight incident reports for their district, checks in with night shift officers at the mini substation

8:00 AM – Community Walkthrough

Walks through business district, checks in with shop owners, notes any concerns or suspicious activity patterns

10:00 AM – School Visit

Meets with school resource officer and principal about recent issues, identifies at-risk youth who need intervention

12:00 PM – Follow-Up Investigations

Works active cases—but because they know the neighborhood, witnesses are more willing to talk

2:00 PM – Problem-Solving Meeting

Meets with neighborhood association about recurring issue (e.g., drug activity at specific location). Works on solution together.

4:00 PM – Youth Program Check-In

Visits after-school program, builds relationships with young people before they get in trouble

6:00 PM – Evening Patrol

Visible presence during high-activity hours, available to residents who work during the day

📊 High Point, NC – Drug Market Intervention

Police, community members and service providers confronted low-level drug dealers directly and offered them a way out.

Result: a peer-reviewed evaluation found significantly less violent crime on the targeted neighborhoods’ highest-crime blocks than in comparison areas (Corsaro et al., 2012)