Lexington police address violence, gangs in city

Lexington Police Chief Lawrence Weathers says while gangs are present, very few murders have been gang-motivated

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – Last year was the city’s deadliest year on record with 34 murders, but Lexington is well on its way to topping that this year with 31 murders, 25 of which have been from guns. Even though 2022 is on track to becoming the deadliest year in Lexington’s history, police chief Lawrence Weathers says overall, violent crime is down in the city.

Chief Weathers says this weekend was rare. As we’ve reported, there were three separate shootings in one night injuring nine people.

Weathers says he understands the community’s concern, especially since the reports of shots fired are city-wide and not localized in one particular area. Weathers says while it’s no comfort, crime across the country is up.

“I have people telling me all the time, you need more police. And we do. You know, but the reality of it is I can have a police officer on every corner but if I did that, crime would happen in the middle of the block,” says Weathers. “So I have to have investigators, I have to have people follow up on that, I have to have partners from the community to bring us information and share things with us that we may not be aware of or may have overlooked.”

ABC 36 asked Chief Weathers about the presence of gangs in the city and he says there are gangs present but not in the traditional way people may think. Weathers says there’s less hierarchy seen in gangs today than in the past.

“When people think of gangs, they think of them from a traditional aspect as there being a territory and a gang leader and people answer to that gang leader and it has a hierarchy,” says Chief Weathers. “You don’t see that anymore.”

Weathers says social media has changed the way gangs operate. Now, he says members still share a common interest in criminal activities but they aren’t limited by location and can be anywhere. Because of this, Weathers says gangs are harder to track and know who’s a part of it.

“I have to have a criminal nexus, even to gather confidential information on those people. If I don’t, I’m targeting people that aren’t really involved in criminal activity,” says Weathers. “During the time of protests and everything like that, I think people really got tired of policing being based on such vague concepts.”

Though there’s gangs in Lexington, Chief Weathers says only a small number of this year’s homicides have been gang motivated. Weathers stresses the difference between gang-related activity and gang motivated.

“I could have somebody in a gang and they could commit a domestic violence, homicide. Although they’re in a gang, that’s related but it wasn’t motivated by the gang,” says Weathers. “So, saying that it’s gang-related, that’s kind of hyped too. What I need to look for is whether or not it was motivated.”

Chief Weathers thinks data studies should be done in the city to look at why we’re seeing the change in violence since the end of the pandemic.