New director of Savannah neighborhood safety program on youth crime prevention
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) – The 2024 crime report recently released by the Savannah Police Department (SPD) shows crime has been on an exponential decline since 2022.
That is also when the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (ONSE) was created.
The program targets youth ages 14-25 who are most at risk of committing or becoming victims of crime.
City leaders such as Mayor Van Johnson and SPD Chief Lenny Gunther have attributed the declining crime rates, especially in youth, directly to ONSE.
They are not taking their foot off the gas in hiring the program's second director.
Now in charge of ONSE is Jimmy Johnson IV from Memphis. He comes to Savannah with 15 years of law enforcement experience and has served as a Crisis Intervention Officer and Field Training Officer.
In his new role, he plans to add on to what is already working within in the program.
'Some of the things that I've noticed they are doing are engaging youth in the schools, and the street intervention and rapid response efforts,' Johnson told News 3, 'I implemented a lot of those things in Memphis, so I just want to enhance what they are already doing.'
Another goal of his is to continue to bridge the gap between young people and law enforcement.
'It's a nationwide problem,' he said, 'I think there has been a broken trust between communities and law enforcement agencies that serve those communities, and having a department like ONSE, we are in place to bridge that gap.'
A new way he means to do this is through the implementation of a door-knocking method in statistically high crime neighborhoods.
'We are going to go into those neighborhoods and knock on the doors of those citizens, not just of those who are involved in violence, but those who are affected, and connect them to resources, so in actuality, we are bringing resources to their doorstep,' said Johnson.
The initiative is called 'Walk In One Stop,' and will happen March 1. More information about it, including what neighborhoods it will come to, will be released soon.
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