Mobile law enforcement leaders discuss fighting the violence during NBC 15 townhall - NBC 15 WPMI
MOBILE COUNTY, Ala. (WPMI) — Monday night NBC 15 hosted an hour-long town hall "Your Voice Your Future, Fighting The Violence” where Mobile's top law enforcement leaders answered your questions about what they're doing to curb crime in our community.
Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine, Public Safety Director Lawrence Battiste and Chief Of Staff James Barber say there's not one solution or one answer to fighting the violence in our community.
“We've got to get our community, our faith base, our schools, our nonprofits, we all have got to come to the table. And we've got to come up with a solution to the problem that everybody is willing to make a commitment to being engaged daily, not just when it's convenient,” Battiste said.
One solution starts at school, Chief of Staff Barber says 66 percent of arrests and suspensions happen in the ninth grade. Due to COVID-19 they weren't able to be in schools for about 2 years.
“We were out of the schools, but we are back in there. We certainly understand that we need to do a better job there,” Barber said.
A specific program that is back up and running is Bridging The Gap.
“We have their chaperones go through shoot don't shoot scenarios. We also allow them to look at a number of weapons so that they can try to identify which weapons are real and which weapons are fake and how quickly you have to make that decision,” Battiste said.
But outside of school they need parents to step up.
Chief Prine says most of the crimes in our area are being committed by people ages 16 to 26.
Some of the parents are aware of what their children are involved in. And so it's unfortunate and in many cases, they're even complicit.
They're also dealing with a huge backlog of court cases 3,729 are pending trial, over 2000 out on the street on bond. Right now, there are only two things that can keep somebody in jail until trial a capital murder offense or if the suspect is a flight risk.
“So, if there's a risk that a shooter is going to shoot again if he's released, bail is still being set. So, we're dealing with 21st-century threats with a 1901 constitution,” Barber said.
They're hoping Aniah’s Law will change that to deny bail to repeat offenders. It has to be passed by voters in November.
“We will be campaigning very, very fiercely to get this tool in place,” Barber said.
Chief Prine says he wants families or people who need help or access to programs and services to reach out to the police department.
“We have a family intervention team. We can get them counseling, if there's Mobile mental health that needs to be involved in it, we can coordinate some of those services for them and really streamline that process,” Prine said.
More information on the family intervention team can be found here.
source: https://mynbc15.com/news/local/mobile-law-enforcement-leaders-discuss-fighting-the-violence-during-nbc-15-townhall
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.