LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Louisville Metro Police Department held its biweekly news briefing Thursday, showing body-cam footage from an incident that happened in the Highlands neighborhood this past weekend. 

According to a release from Councilman Ben Reno-Weber, D-District 8, in the early hours of Sunday, May 25, a large late-night crowd gathered near the intersection of Bardstown Road and Grinstead Drive. This temporarily shut down portions of the roadway, as "the group blocked traffic, disrupted emergency vehicle access and disturbed nearby residents."

Chief Paul Humphrey said he messed up by not having enough officers prepared ahead of time. 

“That won't happen again," Humphrey said. "We'll make sure that we are responding to that ahead of time so that crowd never gets to the point where it's blocking the street and creating a dangerous situation where emergency vehicles can't get through, regular traffic can't get through." 

"The behavior we witnessed by groups of people in our district this weekend was completely unacceptable," Reno-Weber said. "It is not how we celebrate a holiday weekend in the Highlands.”

Humphrey said the strategies Reno-Weber and the Fifth Division officers implemented last year will once again be in place this year to help prevent criminal activity in the Highlands area. This includes closing and limiting areas to some parking lots on weekend, positioning additional cameras in the area and working with business owners to prevent trespassing and other crime. 

“Effectively, the things that he's talking about doing as far as having our roll calls there in that area, some overtime details, walking patrols, those types of things, they were things that were very, very successful last summer,” Humphrey said.

Crowd control is always the first order of business for officers when they arrive at a scene, Humphrey said. Officers cleared the area without pushback.

“You saw [for] a while, it was a large crowd," Humphrey said. "It was a crowd that needed to be dispersed. It was a cooperative group, so you didn't see any type of antagonistic interactions between officers and the public because even though it took time and we had to have numerous officers respond to this, the crowd was cooperative. You even saw one of the guys in there was helping the officer direct traffic and get people out of there."

Larger cities such as Washington, D.C. and Chicago have had issues with "teen takeovers" this month. Humphrey said he doesn't think this will happen in Louisville, but will stay vigilant. 

“We know that when the weather's nice and summer weekends at places like Bardstown Road and NuLu, those are going to be busy areas," Humphrey said. "We have additional officers that will be working in those areas and overtime; that is part of our crime plan. That is part of what's expected by not only those neighborhoods, but it's expected by the city in general that police are going to be present to make sure that they have a good time."

Humphrey also stressed the importance of community and department engagement. 

“We would much rather get ahead of things and prevent something from happening," he said. "If we could work our way out of a job, I would love it, but we also know that's not reality. We continue to need both community cooperation, as well as that proactive work by officers as well as following up on those investigations."

LMPD added it wants to continue to receive ideas and encourage community engagement with their officers. The Fifth Division will work with local business leaders in the Highlands neighborhood to make sure everyone celebrates their weekends responsibly. 

Residents and businesses can report suspicious behavior to the LMPD Anonymous Tip Line at 574-LMPD (5673) or online.