Rumors were squashed and a social media group agreed to help reduce Columbus’ crime rate in any way possible Thursday night, when about 40 people turned out for a public forum held by the Columbus City Council.

The forum was designed to allow the councilmen to listen to concerns from members of the Columbus Facebook Watch Group. The social media group, which has about 4,250 members, was started as a watchdog group to help combat crime, keep the community informed and to hold public officials accountable.

Mac Martin, an administrator for the Facebook Watch group, informed the council of the group’s desire to be helpful to the community.

“We don’t want to be the government or run the government,” Martin said. “We want to help, especially in the area of crime. We are not vigilantes and we’re not gun-toting rednecks. We are here to assist in any way we can. We are only here to help. There are businesses closing their doors every day. Why are they leaving? Do we, as a community, even care? Crime affects every aspect of our community. It reduces the tax base and floods our court systems. Crime is like cancer; it starts small and grows. Our biggest concern, as a group, is crime.”

Columbus Mayor Robert Smith said the council recently addressed the crime issue with Police Chief Selvain McQueen.

“We asked (McQueen) about this a few months ago,” Smith said. “We told him we would do whatever we could to help. So far, we have given him everything he has asked for.”

McQueen recently requested approval for a reorganization chart within his department. The chart, a restructuring of personnel and policies, unanimously was approved by the council. The restructuring proposal included the hiring of a second assistant chief, a commander of criminal investigations and an additional investigator. The city has started advertising for applicants for the positions.

McQueen urged the predominantly middle-aged attendees to be helpful, but not aggressive.

“We don’t need anyone to curtail crime on their own,” McQueen said. “We don’t need vigilantes. We need the citizens to be the eyes and ears of the community. If you see something out of the ordinary, call 911.”

Repeat offenders

After taking numerous questions on why crime is high in the city and why there is an inflated rate of repeat criminal offenders, McQueen said his department can only meet its legal obligations.

“The only thing we can do is arrest the people and collect the evidence and do what is legal,” he explained. “I wish I had a magic wand I could wave and speed up the judicial process, but I can’t. Finding someone with a ‘smoking gun’ is something that happens in the movies. This isn’t our reality. Most of our crimes are being committed by repeat offenders.”

16th District Circuit Court Judge Jim Kitchens, who was in attendance, expressed his own frustrations with the judicial process.

“When people were serving 85-percent sentences and criminals were doing longer sentences, our case load was lighter,” Kitchens said. “But as the economy worsened and budget cuts were needed, the legislature started chiseling away at the 85-percent sentences.”

Kitchens said even at an 85-percent-served rate, a 20-year sentence could be cut to less than half of the original sentence.

“The problem is with a 20-year sentence at 85 percent, you automatically get 30 days removed for every 30 days served; this drops it down from 17 years to about eight years,” he noted. “Prisoners also get years removed for taking certain classes. The disincentive to commit crimes is to lose money or freedom. Repeat offenders have served time before. They know the time they will serve better than we do. This isn’t the math normal people do, but it is the math of repeat offenders.”

Suppressing rumors

A common concern addressed by several group members was the presence of gangs in the community. Although he didn’t deny the existence of gangs, Assistant Police Chief Joe Johnson said the majority of the gang conversations were rumors.

“We have not identified any gang affiliations, through our investigations of the burglaries and robberies,” Johnson said. “Don’t get me wrong, we do have gangs. But our investigations haven’t led us in that direction. We have not identified any members of a certain gang that are terrorizing our citizens.”

Jeff Clark was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.