Joseph Lumpkin, the new chief of the Savannah-Chatham police department, seems to have hit a lot of the right rhetorical notes in his comments about violence in Savannah.
And it’s not all just talk. Building on various initiatives that were already in the works, Lumpkin has taken concrete steps to implement new strategies that might bear fruit in both the short and long term.
In his appearance before City Council on Nov. 25, Lumpkin delivered a clear and realistic overview of the problems we face and of the resources we already have or still need.
Early in those remarks, Lumpkin said, “From my perspective, if you don’t control street drugs, you’re going to have violent crime.”
Thank you, Chief Lumpkin.
There was a little echo of agreement from the aldermen when Lumpkin made that remark about the connection between drugs and violence, but Savannah leaders have for years tolerated highly visible and entirely predictable street-level drug dealing and prostitution in certain neighborhoods.
I am most familiar with the problem in the Jefferson Street corridor, but that’s obviously not the only trouble spot.
After decades of inaction, many neighborhood residents make no effort to call the police when they see criminal activity. New residents near Jefferson Street — including college-age renters — don’t see any reason to get involved.
I’ve heard anecdotal reports of greater police responsiveness to problems in the Jefferson Street corridor, but it’s going to take some real time and effort to convince residents that the police have any control of the street at all.
On my way home from the airport on Sunday night around midnight, I drove on Jefferson for a few blocks.
A woman was walking in the street toward traffic. As I swerved into the other lane to avoid her, she paused and looked intently in my direction.
I don’t think she was part of a neighborhood watch.
I didn’t see any obvious drug dealing on that particular trip, although someone was standing rather suspiciously in the shadows a block away on Barnard Street.
Maybe I should have called the cops, but there is similar activity on those blocks all day and all night. The police know that the suspicious activity is constant, right?
Let’s hope Chief Lumpkin is able to tackle the culture that has led Savannah to tolerate so much street-level crime. The police are going to have to be proactive about pockets of activity if they want cynical residents to speak up forthrightly.
City Talk appears every Sunday and Tuesday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net.