Greenberg touts Louisville crime progress, would 'strongly oppose' federal deployment
But that doesn't mean he isn't keeping a close eye on what's happening in Washington, D.C., where more than 2,000 National Guard members have been dispatched for several days on the orders of President Donald Trump.
While the president has not announced plans to expand that push to other cities, Greenberg said he would 'strongly oppose' any deployment in Louisville.
'We are making great progress. We can, and we must, do more, but we are doing that here locally,' Greenberg said in response to a question at an Aug. 19 press conference. '… I do not believe there is any need for (the National Guard) in our city.'
While reported crime rates included in D.C.'s Metropolitan Police data have declined — the department reported a 35% drop in violent crime from 2023 to 2024, and the 2025 murder rate is currently 11% lower than the same point last year — Trump has said he plans to ask Congress for required "long-term extensions" to keep him in charge of local police, citing "crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse" in the region.
That brings us to Louisville, a blue city with a Democratic mayor in a deep-red state also governed by a Democrat, and a city with that's reported more than 100 homicides annually each year since 2019. Trump has said he may expand his efforts to other major U.S. cities, singling out New York City, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago and Oakland, California — five cities led by Democratic mayors in states with Democratic governors.
To be clear, it's easier for a president to deploy the National Guard in Washington, D.C., as the U.S. government has unique city management powers because of its status as a federal city. Mayor Muriel Bowser has called the police takeover "unsettling and unprecedented" and has argued it shows the city "should be the 51st state."
From USA TODAY: How DC's unique status let Trump take control of police, deploy National Guard
Still, those rules didn't stop Trump from deploying California National Guard forces to Los Angeles earlier this year following protests over his administration's crackdown on immigration enforcement.
Gov. Andy Beshear last sent the National Guard into the city during 2020 protests over the killing of Breonna Taylor in a Louisville Metro Police raid. West End barbecue stand owner David McAtee was shot and killed during a confrontation with members of the Guard and LMPD officers on the fourth night of demonstrations, sparking an outcry in the community and an eventual $725,000 settlement paid by the city.
In response to a question at an Aug. 13 press conference, Beshear said a president 'shouldn't call the Guard into service without the agreement of the governor.' National Guard members are not trained for "everyday law enforcement activity," he said, and are meant to specialize in "logistical support, responding to natural disasters (and) assisting and helping active military."
"To put our Guard — who, remember, are our neighbors — in places and spaces that they are not trained for, puts an American with a family in a potentially dangerous situation," Beshear said. "... My hope is that going forward, this will not be a tactic that the president continues to use, because the very people he is calling in to do different jobs may be put in harm's way.'
Greenberg said in Louisville, by "working collaboratively with the community, we are seeing incredible progress in reducing violent crime in our city."
"I think we're showing the country how you can reduce violent crime by working locally with your police department, in partnership with the community, in partnership with other government agencies, in partnership with nonprofit organizations that are all working together toward a unified goal," he said.
Greenberg cited recent trends in local crime in his answer.
At a Metro Council Public Safety Committee meeting earlier this month, a crime overview presented by LMPD Deputy Chief Emily McKinley showed homicides in 2025 have dropped by 33% compared to the same point last year (97 as of Aug. 6, 2024, compared to 64 in 2025), with 31% year-over-year decreases in nonfatal shootings (239 to 166) and carjackings (95 to 66).
"Don't get me wrong — this is no reason to celebrate, because we have a lot of work to do. We just saw last week another tragedy that happened in our city," Greenberg said, a reference to a high-profile robbery, kidnapping and assault case with a previously convicted suspect out of jail on shock probation. "So, we will continue to do more. We will continue to focus on areas like juvenile violence that we want and need to go down even more, but we are making great progress here in Louisville working together as a city together."
The mayor made waves earlier this summer when he announced Louisville would revive an older Department of Corrections policy to hold inmates in the U.S. unlawfully for up to an additional 48 hours, complying with a request from the Trump administration. He drew criticism from the ACLU of Kentucky and a number of other local activists. In an article this week, a New York Times headline called Greenberg's move "a risky bet" by a Democratic mayor.
In that instance, Greenberg said the city has a significant immigrant population who could be threatened in a federal crackdown, and the "stakes are too high" to push back against the request. Days later, the U.S. Department of Justice removed Louisville from its "sanctuary jurisdictions" list.
"We do not want to see highly coordinated and often violent federal enforcement action here, especially in workplaces, residential areas, schools, places of worship, parks and other areas where law-abiding people gather," Greenberg said on July 22. "We do not want the National Guard occupying the streets of Louisville. I will not risk the safety of our broader immigrant community."
At an Aug. 19 groundbreaking for the planned 36-unit Roosevelt Senior Apartments complex in Louisville's Portland neighborhood, U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey dismissed the question of how he'd react to a federal National Guard deployment locally as a "hypothetical," though he said Trump is "politicizing" safety in the capital with his recent actions.
"He's not trying to solve problems. I think he's trying to create them," McGarvey, a Louisville Democrat set to return to the nation's capital in coming weeks, said.
U.S. Rep. James Comer, a Republican counterpart of McGarvey who represents much of Western Kentucky, said he hopes moves concerning the National Guard in D.C. aren't replicated here. And Louisville is a "different deal," he added last week at a law enforcement roundtable in Shepherdsville, alongside Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman.
"I think we've got a great Metro Council and I think we've got a mayor that's serious about cracking down on crime," Comer, who's considering a 2027 gubernatorial run, told reporters. "... You have such a liberal metro D.C. Council there, and you have prosecutors and judges that are just so lenient. They've taken criminal justice reform so far to the extreme that the criminals, they're never held accountable.'
Coleman, meanwhile, celebrated late last week after the Kentucky Court of Appeals blocked a lower court from striking down provisions in the 2024 General Assembly's Republican-backed House Bill 5, dubbed the "Safer Kentucky Act" by supporters, which stiffened penalties for convictions over many violent crimes. The bill's constitutionality is being challenged in Franklin Circuit Court.
Coleman said about 175 people convicted of violent crimes that took place before the law's effective date who had not yet been sentenced could have been eligible for early release.
"Our Office will continue to defend the Safer Kentucky Act and its benefits for our Commonwealth," the attorney general said in a news release.
Reporters Caroline Neal and Hannah Pinski contributed. Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@courier-journal.com.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Why Craig Greenberg would strongly oppose National Guard in Louisville
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