METRO POLICE Chief Willie Lovett wants to beef up his department’s response to violent youth crimes, and rightly so.
Last Saturday night’s shootings at the Coastal Empire Fairgrounds, where eight young people were wounded — including one young man who wound up in the hospital with a bullet lodged behind his heart, according to family acquaintences — shocked many. About the best that can be said is that no one was killed.
Until last weekend, youth crime — especially violence that may be gang-related — wasn’t a high priority item at City Hall or other places. It is now.
And police need the extra muscle.
Youth crime isn’t just a policing problem. It strongly suggests there’s a parenting problem, too. But the presence of dedicated officers can make a difference, at least when it comes to deterring crime.
The chief wants to add five officers next year who would focus on preventing juvenile crime. This cost won’t come cheap — another $308,300, according to estimates presented this week at a budget retreat to Savannah Mayor Edna Jackson and members of City Council. That’s $61,656 per position.
However, the city employs about 2,500 people. Before she resigned, Rochelle Small-Toney had included a $231,229 increase for 2013 for the city manager’s office and a $64,000 increase for the office of City Clerk Dyanne Reese. That adds up to $295,229 — only $13,071 shy of what the chief needs to help make innocent citizens safer from young thugs who are armed.
Obviously, the fiscally responsible course is to give the chief the tools that he needs, while cutting back on desk jobs downtown and other administrative overhead. Invest the public’s limited tax dollars in safer streets, not in a bigger bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, the chief also wants a new, 30-member street drug squad and more investigators, according to information presented at the budget retreat. Along with the additional five officers to handle youth crimes, this will swell the police department’s budget in 2013 from $4.6 million to 6.9 million — a whopping 50 percent increase.
During a time of tight revenues, Mayor Jackson and council must carefully weigh the chief’s request. City property owners cannot afford a major hike in property taxes next year — especially if the nation goes off the fiscal cliff in Washington, triggering federal tax hikes and spending cuts.
City officials, including the police chief, have long complained that the county-run Counter Narcotics Team, which all taxpayers in Chatham County support with their tax dollars, isn’t getting the job done with city limits. Unfortunately, successive mayors — Otis Johnson, and now, Ms. Jackson — have been unable to resolve this important matter with County Commission Chairman Pete Liakakis.
That must change. The mayor must make an overture to Al Scott, the county’s new chairman-elect who will take office in January. Mr. Scott should be receptive.
The intent of this high-level meeting is to resolve the CNT issue, once and for all.