Letter from the Mayor
I enjoyed reading the Friday, March 24 edition of The Commercial Dispatch and particularly the “Our View” titled, “A call for help is not an admission of failure.”
The editorial noted the staffing crisis at the Columbus Police Department. I’m happy to report we have made significant progress addressing that problem. As of today, March 25, we have 52 officers on staff, including six officers who start work Monday.
The editorial also urged the city to reach out to the Lowndes County Sheriff’s office for help. We did that months ago.
The fruits of that request are reflected on the front page of the same edition of The Dispatch. There you report law enforcement officers with the [Columbus] Lowndes County Joint Drug Task Force and the U.S. Marshall’s Service arrested a woman at her home for threatening a witness to the recent incident at the Princess Theater. Members of the Sheriff’s Office, the Joint Drug Task Force and U.S. Marshall’s Service were invaluable into the investigation of the incident at the Princess Theatre and the subsequent arrest.
We began a dialogue with Sheriff Mike Arledge back in November of 2016 on the issue of working together again.
Recall that a bridge was burned between the Sheriff’s Office and the Columbus Police Department back in 2012 when then police chief Selvain McQueen caused the termination of the Joint Drug Task Force.
A few years passed without the combined task force, and we had an upward trend in crime within our city.
We asked the Sheriff to consider renewing the agreement, and after a few discussions and assurances by the city we would not try to control the task force, we built a new partnership in December of 2016. It has already been active and efficient with at least a dozen arrests within the city and other cases being worked. The combined task force has only worked together since early this month, but is already showing great results.
Note too that we are not sacrificing regular city-wide patrols to send officers to troubled areas in Columbus. We are staffing those areas with command staff, part-time officers and reserve officers.
In closing I would like to say that as Mayor, I have known for some time that we have some challenges to overcome and some fences to mend along the way. I am very proud that when we reached out to the Sheriff’s department months ago, Sheriff Arledge and all of his command staff and deputies and Task Force have cooperated with an enthusiasm that continues today.
Robert Smith, Mayor
City of Columbus
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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