Greenwood Police Chief Terrence Craft told the City Council on Tuesday he is developing a task force to identify and track gang activity.
“This team is going to be very aggressive,” he said. “They’re going to be out in the community, working to try to put an end to all this nonsense and killings.”
The task force will be responsible for working with schools to identify gang members as well as attempting to build relationships with gang members to reduce violence.
Traffic stops and roadblock checkpoints will become more frequent as well.
“Everybody we stop is not going to be a violent offender,” Craft said. “You may get a lot of calls and complaints about police harassing people. Everybody we stop, we don’t know who the bad guys are. We’re going to make contact with a lot of people in that process.”
Both Craft and Mayor Carolyn McAdams made pleas for citizens to speak out if they have any knowledge of impending incidents.
“Please, if you don’t trust me, you don’t trust this council, you don’t trust the police, tell somebody,” she said, “so we can stop these incidents from occurring before they happen.”
Craft also introduced a new deputy chief, Clifton King. The post had remained vacant since the death of Marvin Hammond last year.
King is a native of Greenwood, a graduate of Greenwood High School and a retired member of the Army Reserve. He comes to the Greenwood Police Department after working as assistant chief in Moorhead.
“Mr. King has been informed of the great task that he’s about to endure, but he’ll also be a great relief and a lot of pressure taken off me,” Craft said.
King received enthusiastic applause.
“I understand the situation you all have going on here in the community,” King said. “I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make this community a safer place.”
Earlier in the day, Craft told the Greenwood Rotary Club that most of the gun violence occurring in the community is rooted in a decadelong rivalry between two neighborhood gangs — one in the McLaurin Street area and the other around W.J. Bishop Apartments, not far from Amanda Elzy High School.
“They come over here, shoot somebody from this territory. They go back, shoot somebody from that group. It’s just been back and forth, year after year after year,” he said.
He said two recent shootings that have the community alarmed — the July 2 gunfire inside Hibbett Sports and the midday fatal shootout July 23 along U.S. 82 — were an outgrowth of this rivalry.
One suspect has been charged in the first incident, and Greenwood police have arrested a suspect in the second — but Craft said the individual has not been formally charged as police continue to pursue other persons of interest.
He said some of those involved in gun violence have been as young as 14 and are carrying semi-automatic weapons. “We’re dealing with a different breed of people now,” the chief said.
The Police Department has struggled for years with hiring officers. Presently, according to Craft, the department is about 25 officers, or 40%, short of its desired capacity.
“The stigma with policing in the nation is terrible,” he said. “A lot of guys don’t want to do the job now.”
He said the city’s adoption of widespread camera surveillance has helped offset some of the staffing shortage. There are presently 58 cameras deployed around the city, with plans to acquire 15 more of the recording devices. The cameras range in price from $4,500 to $7,000 apiece, said McAdams, who gave Craft a strong endorsement during her introduction of the police chief.
Craft appealed for the community’s collaboration in his department’s efforts.
“The Greenwood Police Department is working hard to catch the bad guys and put them behind bars, but we’re counting on you, the citizens, to work together in this fight against crime. ... We all have to work together to get this done.”
McAdams, who is serving this year as president of the Mississippi Municipal League, said she will be lobbying state lawmakers to create a law enforcement task force that could temporarily provide officers to assist communities when they become overwhelmed with crime.
“I need help,” she said. “I don’t have enough police to put out there to show a sign of force.”
Chris Cascio, who attended the civic club’s meeting as a guest, told Craft that in order to foster community involvement in crime fighting, the Police Department needs to do a better job of communicating. “We don’t know what’s going on,” said the farm manager for the catfish-processing operation America’s Catch. “The more the community knows, the more we can help you.”
Craft said he understands why some of the more brazen crimes have citizens worried. “I know a lot of people are wondering what is going on in Greenwood. Sometimes I wonder, too.”
- Contact Kevin Edwards at 662-581-7233 or kedwards@gwcommonwealth.com. Contact Tim Kalich at 662-581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
