About 75 residents Thursday attended a community meeting at the Municipal Complex, held to garner volunteers to serve on a crime prevention task force.
Eulalie Davis, a lifelong Columbus resident, hopes the task force will find “a way to go into the neighborhoods singly and get one-on-one with the young people.”
Columbus Police Chief Joseph St. John noted the audience recently has noticed more incidents of crime reported, but it”s only because the Columbus Police Department recently started releasing statistics of complaints responded to by the department.
“Before I got here, nobody released that info,” he said. “But you need to know.
“Our problem is social disorder,” he continued, noting Columbus” overall crime rate is low. “It stems from our young people. Young people are terrorizing neighborhoods, (sometimes) just with their presence. We do have a social disorder issue. There is so much smoke, you can”t tell me there”s not a fire. Young men are in the streets, unattended, harassing people.”
St. John also noted drugs are a community problem.
“Social disorder is a big reason why we have a lot of the issues we have in Lowndes County,” agreed Chief Deputy Greg Wright of the Lowndes County Sheriff”s Office. “In the county, a lot of the prevention is going to fall back to good people like you, who are willing to stand up and say, ”Enough is enough.”
“It”s quite obvious to me (crime prevention) is a concern,” he added, referring to the large number of residents in attendance. “We are working on things to provide protection in areas lacking, like Crawford and Artesia. But it”s people like you that are going to be the answer. Once the citizens rise up, that”s when you”re going to start finding good, positive progress.”
“The goal tonight is to get participation to serve on this crime prevention task force,” said Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem, a member of the current class of the Minority Leadership Training and Development Program, which sponsored the meeting as a community project. “Crime is a community problem. It might be in my yard today, but it might be in yours tomorrow.”
District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks is the facilitator of the nine-month leadership program, in which 14 students currently are enrolled.
“The thing is not are we going to do something?” Brooks said. “It”s are we all going to do something? We”ve got to press forward.
“I will not stand up here and take the responsibility to try and solve crime,” he continued. “I will take the responsibility of being an active participant in a collaborative effort. Even if it”s not a problem in your neighborhood, we don”t want Columbus to have a reputation as being crime-ridden. We”re going to look out at our community to take the time to come up with some recommendations and strategies. We”re not interested in doing a one-day thing. We”re looking at a process.”
The group also plans to bring in the executive director of the American Crime Prevention Institute, which St. John said is the “Cadillac of crime prevention schools,” for a three-day Crime Prevention Through Community Engagement Workshop.
“We don”t want to do something that feels good,” said Brooks of the task force being set up by volunteers. “We want to do something to have a difference. We want to create an aura of ”not in my neighborhood.””
From volunteers who signed up at the meeting, a task force will be established to gather data from which crime prevention recommendations will be made to area law enforcement.
“I was impressed,” Davis said of the meeting. “I think (the task force) will go somewhere. I”m working with the YMCA on something. We talked about parenting this morning and that”s exactly what they”re talking about.”
If at least 25 or 30 people volunteer, sub-committees will be formed, Brooks said, noting those who signed up will receive a letter informing them of the details of “an initial meeting to develop a plan of operations” for the task force.
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