Public Safety & Services

[mitchella81]

I thought this would be an intresting area to add to the local Thread. This area is to discuss items which effect public safety & city services within the city. With the anticpated population boom over the next couple of years the city will need to improve many factors such as public transportation and police response times as well as deal with the increasing crime rates throughout the city. discuss everything from parks & rec to METRA to police & fire services in this thread.

[mitchella81]

Mayor Jim Weatherington is attempting to improve city public safety by adding an additional 100 patrol officers to the City police force. As of right now Columbus is below FBI recommendations for officers. The FBI recommends that a city the size of Columbus has about 2.5 officers per 1000 people in the city Columbus only has 1.94 officers per 1000 citizens. This was noted in last years crime statisics which nearly all increased throughout the city of Columbus.

The following info was released from the Police department earlier this week about crime increases in the city.

Category 2007 2006

Murder 24 16

Vehicular Homicde 3 11

Rape 56 16

Robbery 626 560

Aggravated Assualt 678 568

Burglary 2,634 2769

Larceny 9357 9204

Vehicular Theft 1791 1856

Despite the fact that many of the numbers are up luckily Automobile thefts are down in the city. In 2006 Columbus had the highest auto theft rate in the state of Georgia based on thefts compared to population. Some of the crime increases can be attributed to population increases in the area

On another up note the Mayor has also pledged that if a new 1cent sales tax is approved the city will recieve at least 2 new police stations. No location for those has been announced yet.