Robert Benton told community members and leaders Monday night in Trotter Convention Center he is “disheartened” by the crime occurring in the area of his business, Military Hardware on Military Road.
There have been five instances of crime near his store in the last 15 months, including a “pretty significant shooting” outside the window while he and his wife, Mary Ann Benton, were in the store.
Still, he believes the community can solve Columbus’ rising crime issue if citizens work together.
“We need to be thinking about this and thinking together on this,” he said. “It’s a community effort. As a new person in town … I don’t know a lot about Columbus other than there’s some great people in this town and I’m willing to partner with them to solve some of this.”
Benton was among dozens of citizens who met with community leaders for a town hall hosted by the Crime Prevention Task Force, which Mayor Robert Smith and Lowndes County District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks formed earlier this year. In just the last two weeks, city police have responded to three shootings with injuries throughout the city, the most recent on 16th Street North on May 11.
On Monday, questions focused on law enforcement operations, suggestions for youth programs and calls for better cooperation between the city and county.
Attendees offered suggestions varying from putting anti-drug programs and mentorship programs back in the schools to calling on the county to help fund projects in the city. Others said they didn’t necessarily have any solutions of their own but were happy to help implement the ones the task force is already planning.
The task force is split into five subcommittees focusing — law enforcement enhancement, education, youth and recreation, community revitalization and community perception — each of which plan to put together a series of recommended solutions to present to the city council next month. Before that, though, the task force hosted the meeting specifically to hear citizens’ ideas on how to address each of those issues, said Brooks, who chairs the task force.
“It’s not just about law enforcement,” Brooks said. “… It’s the total gamut of all these pieces fit(ting) in. We’re looking at trying to make our community a better place.”
Law enforcement input
The task force has so far focused on putting together activities and events to give young people something to do, which Sheriff Eddie Hawkins focused on at the beginning of the meeting, when law enforcement officials spoke before hearing input from the public.
Hawkins said his department can arrest suspects and incarcerate people who commit crimes, but that won’t stop crime if people, particularly teenagers, don’t have many opportunities for staying out of trouble.
“We’ve got to start doing something for the kids at a young age to get them involved in something, other than being out here on the streets being involved in crime activity,” Hawkins said. “Getting them involved in sports or other projects, and having somebody to mentor these kids and get them off the street and give them something to do. You keep them busy, they get too tired to commit crimes.”
He and District Attorney Scott Colom also pointed out that many of the people being arrested for the most violent crimes in the area have all been arrested before. Part of the problem with prosecuting them, Colom said, is the reluctance of witnesses to come forward. The community has created a “culture of gun violence” that encourages people to handle conflicts themselves rather than go to law enforcement.
He pointed to a murder trial he prosecuted last week in which a Columbus man was convicted of second-degree murder for shooting another man who tried to fight him. Colom said in that case, eye witnesses were extremely reluctant to testify.
Colom even suggested law enforcement create a map of residents with doorbell cameras or surveillance cameras on their property so police can know to ask them for help if a crime occurs in their area. The city of Columbus has already purchased 12 surveillance cameras for placement around the city.
“Let’s get the most evidence we can because the more evidence we have, the more leverage we have when it comes to convicting those cases,” he said.
Questions and suggestions
Questions for officials ranged from whether the city has a juvenile curfew in place — which has become a topic of debate in Starkville where crime is also increasing — to whether there are enough police officers patrolling the city and if they receive help from Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office.
The juvenile curfew is from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and midnight to 5 a.m. Friday and Saturday, Police Chief Fred Shelton said, though he added the city is currently reviewing the ordinance in case it needs to change.
As for patrol, he said, the department already announced it will increase night patrols by three to five officers. Hawkins added that while LCSO mostly lets Columbus Police Department have jurisdiction within the city limits, sheriff’s deputies have jurisdiction as well and conduct their own drug investigations and assist CPD when asked.
Brooks also suggested city officials could look into using federal funds from the American Relief Bill — the county is set to receive $11.3 million, while the city should receive about $5 million — to provide additional pay for first responders.
CPD reserve officer James Richardson suggested schools get the D.A.R.E. program, which teaches children about the dangers of drugs and violence, back in schools.
“What SROs (school resource officers) were designed to do, they don’t do anymore,” said Richardson, who is a retired school resource officer. “One of those things that I did as a school resource officer myself … I was assigned to every elementary school and I went in myself and probably talked about how we’re dealing with peer pressure, we dealt with conflict resolution, we dealt with all these things. And it really was important because we focused on the elementary kids.”
He said the schools should focus as much on children’s social education as their academic education.
One of the last meeting attendees to speak, Barry Hines, asked that the county supervisors help the city financially implement some of the proposed solutions.
“I notice we’re talking a lot about resources, primarily money,” he said. “… Citizens of Columbus make up about 45 percent of the county population, and every supervisor has constituents in some parts of the city. Now we’ve got a great big influx of (tax revenue) in the county with all this industry coming in. I have the sense that Columbus isn’t seeing anything from the county. I know there’s state laws, but I’d like to see our … supervisors in the county start talking to (state legislators) about ways that the county can actually start caring about 100 percent of the citizens … not just part.”
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