Greenville Crime Summit Highlights Use of High-Tech Tools to Fight Crime
The Greenville City Council used many of the technological tools at its disposal Wednesday evening to present an interactive crime summit to city and county residents.
About 150 people gathered at the council chambers to participate in a lively panel discussion featuring local law enforcement and judicial system leaders and a representative of the faith community.
The summit was televised live on GTV9, the city’s governmental access channel, and interested residents who could not be at the live event were able to send in questions and comments to the event host Virginia Hardy of East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine.
Greenville Police Chief William Anderson said a multi-media event is an excellent approach to public involvement in important community issues like crime.
“I think we have some of the best officers in North Carolina, but we cannot do this without the help and support of the community. Having all these summits and town hall meetings is important for sharing information, and it helps us do our job better,” Anderson said.
Councilwoman Rose Glover said the crime summit was planned in January.
“We’ve had this type of event before, but not on quite as big a scale as this one. We want to get as many people involved as we can,” Glover said.
Pitt County District Attorney Clark Everett, another panelist for the public forum portion of the summit, agreed that public access to government officials for questioning and explaining policies is a good idea.
“Any event that allows the public to be better informed is a good event. Many of the forums that we share ideas at are not as good as this for getting ideas out to the public,” Everett said.
Questions about sentencing guidelines, court processes and some complicated social issues are difficult for the average citizen to reach a public official with, Glover said. But the crime summit’s multi-media approach allowed people to follow the discussion at home and send in questions from their living rooms, she said.
The summit began with Anderson’s presentation of crime trends during the past year, followed by an explanation of some of the many crime prevention programs the city and police department have in place, and some they are planning for the coming year.
Jonathan S. Williams, deputy secretary of the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, gave the keynote address.
Williams’ grandparents and father once lived in a house on Chestnut Street near Paris Avenue, a section described by Anderson as one of the police departments current “hot spots” of crime, he said.
Williams praised the police for their proactive approach to law enforcement and for the many quality programs it offers the community, including Community Watch, Crime Stoppers, the Gang Unit and PAL. He focused attention on the many efforts made to intervene in schools through resource officers and enrichment programs for children.
“Your department has received national accreditation as a law enforcement agency. That’s no small feat and I commend you for that milestone and the many initiatives your department has taken to eliminate crime,” Williams said. “The results look good. While the city is continually growing, there has been only a marginal increase in crimes.”
Anderson’s prediction that the public would appreciate the forum and participate in a civil discourse on crime was on target.
The panel answered questions from Internet participants and members of the audience, and in many instances shared varying perspectives about the same topic or question.
In addition to Anderson and Everett, the panel was filled out by Sheriff Mac Manning, Chief Kim Williams and Claire Bass, both of Probation and Parole, District Court Judge Joseph Blick and Rev. Tyrone Turnage.
By Michael Abramowitz
The Daily Reflector
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Greenville Crime Summit Uses High-Tech Tools
