Violent crime up as Savannah police work to fill department vacancies

“We currently have 13 arrests for homicides and we have seven open cases. Our clearance rate is actually 72% right now for our homicides,” Minter said, noting that the national clearance rate is 64%.

Violent crime has increased 7% and property crimes have increased 10%. Part one crimes, which includes street and residential robberies, aggravated assaults with and without guns, auto theft, commercial burglary and shoplifting, have increased 9% during the first half of 2021 compared to the same period last year.

When it comes to recruitment and retention Minter told council that the No. 1 reason officers leave is for better job opportunities. Family reasons were the second most listed cause.

Minter said SPD isn’t the only department trying to recruit qualified candidates. Other agencies, including the Chatham County Police Department, Chatham County Sheriff's Office and the Georgia State Patrol, are also dealing with vacancies, he said.

“Everybody's out there, kind of fishing out at the same pond looking for qualified candidates,” Minter told the council.

Minter said officials realize the department is dealing with challenges and moving forward with recruitment. The department is authorized for 537 positions and currently has 49 vacancies. There are 25 officers currently in training, including eight in patrol school and another 17 in the police academy.

“Our next academy class starts in September, so we are actively out in the community and actively recruiting to try and get as many of these vacancies filled during that September recruitment class,” Minter said.

Alderwoman Linda Wilder Bryan said the department could be doing more when it comes to recruiting and retaining officers.

“We're losing too many people and you promised us that you were going to do something about it and make those positions fulltime positions, because we want fulltime results,” she said to Minter.

"We're not getting the solutions that we need."

Gun violence  

Guns stolen from vehicles is one contributing factor to the area’s violence, Minter said.

This year there have been 134 vehicle break-ins, resulting in 17 stolen guns. Another 72 guns were stolen from unlocked vehicles and five guns were stolen from vehicles with the keys left in them.

Other factors in Savannah’s gun violence include confrontations and altercations that involve the use of weapons and drug sales and gang-related incidents. Minter also noted instances where individuals awaiting trial for various offenses become victims of retaliation and where those individuals retaliate against witnesses.

“Now that the court system has somewhat opened up, we're starting to see some of these cases starting to go to court,” Minter said.

The SPD has seized almost 1,200 guns as evidence from 912 incidents, resulting in 82 arrests for possession of a firearm, including 59 on felony charges.

The department is just over a month into its 100 Days of Summer Task Force, which deploys officers and detectives to crime hotspots and historical summer incident locations in an attempt to address issues that historically have been problems in those areas, Minter said.

“So far, in just over 30 days, they've confiscated 24 guns, made 23 felony arrests, just over 100 traffic citations and have arrested 17 people on felony warrants. They've also recovered five stolen guns during operations over their first 30 days,” he said.

Alderwoman Bernetta Lanier questioned if those hotspots and incident locations were also located in Savannah's higher poverty neighborhoods. She said more needed to be done in terms of providing opportunities for young people to be constructively involved in learning about entrepreneurship and economics.

Lanier said there is a correlation between these factors and violent crime and she would like to see the economic piece looked at more intently.

“We have not provided this type of resource for the westside, for the city of Savannah, for the young people to have a real opportunity for them to go inside of a facility and learn about entrepreneurship and business and be able to have investment, access to capital," she said.

Prevention

Other aspects of the department's gun violence reduction plan include a continued focus on violent and repeat offenders; youth-focused gang prevention, intervention and leadership programs; and expanded use of technology.

The police are also working with Cure Violence Global, a public health anti-violence program. Minter said representatives from the program were in Savannah recently.

“They spent about two days here in Savannah, going around meeting with community members and visiting various communities. They wanted to have boots on the ground to make sure before they made a commitment that this is a program that they believe would work well and could be implemented here in Savannah,” he said.

Minter said the department has also implemented the first phase of the Savannah Impact Program (SIP), which has been a council priority. The SIP works with youth and those on probation to curb recidivism.

Funding was initially stopped for the program in 2015, but money was included for SIP in the 2021 budget.

“Phase One basically involves us bringing the Department of Community Services and the Department of Juvenile Justice back into the program and re-establishing that relationship and partnership with those two agencies,” Minter said.

“We believe that this is going to be extremely beneficial in assisting us in moving forward with addressing some of the crime concerns that are occurring in our community.”

The Police Athletic League (PAL) is also coming back, Minter said. The program ran from 2004 to 2014 with over 1,500 youths participating. The program aims to prevent juvenile crime and violence by building the bond between police officers and kids through various athletic activities.

The program is expected to restart with a flag football league in early August.

Katie Nussbaum is the city and county government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. Contact her at knussbaum@savannahnow.com. Twitter: KmartSMN

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Violent crime up as Savannah police work to fill department vacancies