Louisville's Week in 911 Calls: Dec 16-22

Editor’s note:

Check out our post about this synthesis for where the data comes from and how we analyze it.

— Jay

Derby City Watch logged seven days of police scanner activity. Most were medical emergencies and false alarms.

But the pattern underneath tells you what Louisville's emergency system is actually built to handle and what it's not.

267 medical emergencies across seven days. Chest pain, overdoses, strokes, breathing difficulties. The same calls, different addresses.

89 false fire alarms at residential and commercial buildings. System malfunctions, faulty detectors, routine checks that pull resources from actual emergencies.

31 traffic incidents. Minor collisions, hit-and-runs, vehicles versus pedestrians. No fatalities recorded, but consistent stream of property damage and injuries requiring transport.

14 shooting incidents or reports of gunfire. Concentrated in west Louisville and south end neighborhoods. Multiple rounds fired, suspects fleeing, victims with non-life-threatening injuries.

The mechanism: Louisville's 911 system spends most of its bandwidth on health crises and false alarms. Violence gets the headlines, but cardiac arrest and COPD exacerbations are what keep EMS units cycling.

Cardiac and respiratory distress dominated: chest pain, shortness of breath, suspected strokes.

December 22: Three simultaneous medical calls in downtown within one hour—woman in her 50s with chest pain on South 4th Street, 69-year-old man struggling to breathe on W Kentucky St, 70-year-old woman short of air at Crescent Towers.

December 21: Two critical calls at Dixie Hwy intersections within minutes—23-year-old woman vomiting blood, 61-year-old man with stroke symptoms. Both required coordinated multi-unit response.

December 19: Multiple overdoses, falls with head trauma, seizures. A 70-year-old woman found unresponsive downtown. Man with chest pain and high blood pressure on LaGrange Road.

14 shooting incidents across seven days sounds high until you compare it to 267 medical emergencies.

Gun violence consumes disproportionate police resources i.e. scene securing, evidence collection, witness canvassing, surveillance review, but it's not the dominant demand on emergency services.

December 20: Shooting on Woodland Mills Dr, multiple firearms involved, no injuries. Scene cordoned off, shell casings collected, neighborhood canvassed.

December 16: Multiple shots fired near W Market St, five rounds detected by shot spotter. High-speed chase, suspect apprehended with gun, victim transported with stomach wound.

December 21: Self-inflicted gunshot wound on South 44th Street. 41-year-old male found with head wound. No gunfire heard. Scene secured, evidence processed.

The mechanism: Shootings trigger multi-unit responses and long scene processing times. Medical calls are higher volume but faster turnover. Both stress the system, but differently.

89 false fire alarms in seven days.

Angel House Daycare on Bluebeck Road. Residential property on Caldwell St. Multi-story hotel on E Market St. Assisted living center on Bardstown Rd. Commercial building on Fitzgerald Rd.

Each one pulls fire units from rotation. Each one requires response, investigation, scene clearing.

The trade-off: Over-sensitive alarm systems prevent deaths. But they also mean real emergencies compete with false positives for limited units.

December 17: Major house fire on Hale Ave, heavy flames, second floor involved, multiple hoses deployed, neighboring structures at risk. This is what the system is built for. But on a day with six false alarms, response time margins shrink.

Vehicle pursuits showed up repeatedly. Suspects fleeing traffic stops, stolen vehicles, domestic disputes turning into high-speed chases.

December 20: Red Dodge Ram with expired temp tag fled through residential streets, drove through yards, ended at dead-end street. Suspect located in tree line. K-9 units, air support, coordinated multi-unit response.

Same day: Blue sedan involved in domestic dispute, male hitting female inside vehicle. Chase extended to interstate, suspect jumped off bridge, tracked through tree lines. Firearm recovered.

December 16: Red charger fleeing after gunfire near Lori's Package Liquors. High-speed chase, suspect with gun in passenger seat apprehended.

The mechanism: Pursuits shut down roads, require staging, involve K-9 and air support. They're resource-intensive and dangerous. But when suspects flee, the calculus changes—let them go or risk the chase. Louisville PD mostly chooses the chase.

Derby City Watch transcribes scanner traffic in real time. It's not official LMPD reporting, it's community-sourced observation.

Limitations:

What it does show:

This isn't crime statistics. It's emergency system load.

Louisville's 911 system is handling medical crisis management in real time, seven days a week.

The calls keep coming: chest pain in Clifton, overdose in Smoketown, stroke downtown, fall in the Highlands, breathing difficulties in Shively.

Fire units rotate between false alarms and actual structure fires. EMS units shuttle between hospitals and scenes. Police units bounce between traffic stops, domestic disturbances, and shootings.

The system works until it doesn't. When multiple emergencies hit simultaneously, response times stretch. When pursuits lock down units, other calls wait.

One comment pattern across Derby City Watch posts: "Look out for one another."

That's the reminder at the end of every digest. Because when 911 response times depend on call volume and unit availability, community awareness becomes infrastructure.

Derby City Watch: derbycitywatch.com

Disclaimer: Information processed automatically. May contain errors or omissions. Not official police reporting.

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