Shots fired: GPD aims to take guns off street
I attended the Greensboro Police Department’s 01/28/2009 press conference on 2009 Firearms Suppression Strategies. Police Chief Tim Bellamy, Captain Janice Rogers and Captain Charles Cherry outlined the department’s plans to get guns off the street and reduce violence in our community. The news conference comes in the wake of three deaths within a 7-day period in Greensboro — the first homicides of 2009. As part of GPD’s efforts to take aim at firearms, Crime Analysis will identify “hot spots” within the city. Chief B. explained that these are locations “where shots fired calls for service are coming from. That’s where the guns are.” Some of the hot spot locations mentioned were Randleman Rd. & Terrell St.; MLK & Andrew St.; and E. Market St. (I didn’t get the cross street, but I think that it was in the vicinity of this weekend’s shooting near A&T.)
Some of the strategies that will be employed within the hot spots are:
- increasing visibility; increasing traffic stops; conducting investigative stops; increasing pedestrian stops and conducting interviews; and using search warrants to seize illegal weapons
- identifying residents on probation/parole
- utilizing discretionary units to conduct directed patrol and engaging in special assignments through obligated time [note: more on this below]
- responding to all shots fired calls [note: more on this below]
GPD will also work with ATF to identify how the guns are coming into our community and will seek strict prosecution of weapons violations in state and federal court. [Note: Federal charges carry stiffer penalties.] Police will aggressively attempt apprehension of persons wanted on weapons violations. Additional strategies, as well as information about guns recovered, crime stats, weapons charges, traffic stats and more, are available in the handouts from the press conference, in PDF format here.
Chief B. asked that citizens call to report all instances of shots fired. In some areas of town, hearing gunfire is not an unusual occurrence, and residents may be less likely to report it to police. (Homeless friends who sleep outside in the Lee Street area tell me that they were awakened by gunfire almost nightly last summer, sometimes more than once each night. Some of them were veterans. They know what gunfire sounds like. They never reported it. I don’t know if neighbors did. ) Previously, police did not respond to every report of shots fired. Communications dispatched a car if there was a suspect involved. Under the new policy, police will respond to all reports of shots fired within hot spot locations.
After the press conference, I talked to Chief B. about the increase in calls for service that the new shots fired policy will create. I asked how many call-answering cars GPD averages now and he said, “about 48.” But even with that number, they’re 10-100 (no cars available) at times. Early Sunday morning, when the Homestead shooting occurred, at least 10 officers responded. They were 10-100 at that time. All available officers responded to that call. But any priority 1 call requires back-up, so if there are multiple priority 1 calls, it quickly reduces the number of available officers. (I’ve emailed Chief to find out if a shots fired call with no suspect will be a priority 1 or 2 call. But I realize that a priority 2 call can quickly change and require backup if the responding officer encounters a suspect on the scene. Update, 01/29/2009, from Chief Bellamy: “Shots fired calls are not priority one.”)
Chief B. said that beginning this Friday, patrol will change from 5/4 (days on/off) to 4/4, and because of the schedule change and the requirement that all officers work 2080 hours annually, each officer will owe the City 164 hours per year in obligated time. Some of that obligated time will be used to add call-answering officers to hot spots, increasing police presence in those areas and decreasing the likelihood that officers will be 10-100.
Today’s news conference interested me for two reasons:
- I believe that it’s time for the Church (big “C,” the Church universal, the Body of Christ) to become burdened about the violence that is destroying lives in our community (victims, shooters, families, neighbors) and to join together and become either involved for the first time or more deeply involved (some churches are already involved) in pursuing a path to peace. It’s the job of the police department to protect and serve, to restore and maintain order. It’s the job of the Church to pursue peace and to be ministers of reconciliation. Church, are we doing our job?
- Some of the young people who are involved in this cycle of violence will die young. Some will go to prison. And some will end up on the street one day — some all too soon. (And some are already there.) In doing street outreach, we see many homeless men and women whose lives have been scarred by the violence that has been done to them, or that they have done to others — or both. Stopping the violence early can mean saving a young person from death, prison and/or homelessness.
» HANDOUTS FROM THE NEWS CONFERENCE
» News & Record coverage: “Police detail new gun initiative”
» Fox8 coverage: “Greensboro Police to Target Gun ‘Hot Spots‘”
