March 10, 2006 Article 18

SOS Members & Friends

Kudos to the Arsley Park Neighborhood Association for hosting their neighborhood meeting March 5, 2006. The organizers pulled together a great meeting with their beat policemen, precinct Captain, the Chief, Michael Brown, Mayor Johnson, Ken Sadler and 125+ members of the community.

I believe that the meeting was a huge success in getting more information out to the public. Michael Brown distributed a power point program entitled “Public Safety Priority�. (A copy is on the SOS web site at www.saveoursavannah.com.) It is a great piece of public propaganda. If the items in the publication were fact, our crime would not be out of control. Please take the time to read this piece and determine for yourself if you think it reflects the facts as they are.

This meeting signals a change in tactics by the city, Michael Brown and the Police Chief. It appears that the new tactic is to circle the wagons, go to “talking points� and declare the problem too large for just the police to solve, and therefore someone else’s fault.

Our position is that we don’t care what has happened in the past; all we care about is that, currently, crime is out of control in Savannah compared to other U.S. cities, and we need to make Savannah a safe place to live and work. It is unacceptable to decide that the problem is too big and shrug it off with gobbly gook and a promise that it is being worked on. The meeting was a clear indication that the Chief and Michael Brown have not accepted the fact that crime is out of control in Savannah and that drastic measures need to be applied to fix the problem. This reaction is a problem that “we the people� need to address. We will receive the amount of policing we demand. We need to demand more!

We are looking for dramatic reductions in crime—in the range of 30% to 40%. This cannot happen without a coordinated effort and a “whatever-it-takesâ€? attitude from both the government and the citizens. There are tactics that have been successful in cities all over the country, which we need to implement in Savannah. What we are looking at as a “draftâ€? plan for crime reduction is as follows:

    Citizen Participation

    New Police Chief

    Reorganized Police Department

    Strict Physical Requirements

    Strict Educational Requirements

    Salary increase

    Crime Stoppers – $10,000.00 Reward for tip on every murder

    Precincts – Patrol assumes resources, responsibility & accountability

    Respect, customer service and pride in our police department

    Technology / computers / cameras

    Streetlights in public areas of Savannah

    Change, Change and more change – see what works and implement it!

    Most of all we are going to need $10 to 15 million for the technology needed to rapidly reduce crime all over the city and county.

This is a basic blueprint for drastic improvement. Everyone should add their ideas to the plan so that we can begin to start recommending specific programs to government.

There are four things that the Chief and Michael Brown promoted at the meeting. Please give us your feedback on the new tactics:

    1. Crime in Savannah is going down. It has been the same for 5 to 10 years, so it is no more a problem now than it was 5 or 10 years ago.

    2. The Police Department are the professionals and we the public should not be making suggestions to them on how to run their department. (“Don’t micromanage the police.�)

    3. Crime is a criminal justice problem and not just a police problem, therefore we cannot solve the problem without all the other pieces of the criminal justice system participating.

    4. The EPO, Expanded Patrol Operation is a good thing. (The EPO is pulling officers from the crime suppression precinct units and is 100% against what the Public Safety Task Force recommended and what has worked in Charleston…Hello!)

I thought we were making progress now I am not so sure ……

It is painfully obvious that the only thing that is going to reduce crime significantly is your participation. Let us have your feedback and please encourage someone to join SOS by sending an email to martinsullivan@saveoursavannah.com

A disappointed Martin