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Based upon parent and resident surveys, UGA Parents for Safety and Security and SafeD Athens sent an email to Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission urging them to budget and implement a critical Block by Block project for downtown Athens. We included a power point presentation outlining the need for Safety Escorts, Safety Ambassadors/Patrols, Outreach Ambassadors, and Cleaning Ambassadors. We kept the project within current spending limits for similar downtown services (Safety Escorts currently not available with limited Safety Patroling). Please review survey results and what a Block by Block program could do for downtown Athens HERE (Power Point). Email to Mayor and Commission can be found HERE.
Sign Petition to Help SafeD Athens Make the UGA Community Safer
Sign Petition to Help SafeD Athens Make the UGA Community Safer
Read our response to UGA’s announcement regarding $7.3 Million commitment to safety and security following the murder of Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus. Our petition remains for President Morehead’s action on important programs that could have made a difference in the tragic death of Laken Riley. We would be remiss to not continue pushing for the critical and carefully researched initiatives that can and will make the campus community safe. The $7.3 Million committed and for initiatives specified is a positive step but UGA can do better.
Live Safe … Live Smart
Thank you for taking a look at us! Partner with us to help make Athens a clean, safe, and vibrant city for all. Our benchmarked programs and ideas for safety and security within Athens involve both high-tech infrastructure, ‘nontraditional’ approaches involving people, and partnerships with UGA and city government.
The Athens-Clarke County Police Department’s new Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) is up and running. The RTCC will allow for continuous strategic monitoring 24/7 of all types of cameras throughout Athens. Beyond investigative needs, this center will help ACCPD prevent crime. Knowing it exists will deter crime. It will be a force multiplier with realtime information available for officer deployment. ACCPD Chief Saulters and Chief Crime Analyst Nick Barker gave an informative presentation for SafeD Athens on March 12, 2024. You can see their presentation here.
Recently, UGA has agreed to share 100% of their cameras within the RTCC. A Memorandum of Understanding should be forthcoming.
ACCPD would like to see businesses, landlords, and residents share their camera feeds with the RTCC. Sharing cameras enables ACCPD to respond to incidents faster and equips officers with advance knowledge of the situation. Sharing private cameras is conditional upon mutual agreement with ACCPD and will only be accessed the event of a criminal incident or emergency at a location.
The Software platform used is Fusus. What is Fusus and how does it work?
Fusus - Unified Pubic & Private Video for Smart Cities
Learn about the Clery Act, How to donate to the Athens Police Foundation, Read the UGA Daily Crime Log and more info just a click away…
Mental Health Housing FirstLearning from your mistakes makes you smart. Learning from other people’s mistakes makes you a genius.
Recently, Governors and other leaders in states such as California, New York, Oregon, and South Carolina are reversing course on homeless policies, addressing what has not worked over time. Governor Newsom recognized after his state spent $20 Billion that to “reduce homelessness” things needed to change. Governors are boldly prioritizing mental health over Housing First (without a broad array of mental health services). They are inserting accountability and responsibility into the funding equation.
We have updated the data through 7/23/2023 now current with 16 shootings within the UGA 500 yard jurisdiction - 16th shooting was ‘on campus’ and not reported on any crime map, crime incidents on campus are not reported to the community, only through Clery Act reporting.
Crime Map Includes Narcotics Reporting
We have updated the Interactive Crime map to include total Narcotic incidents . Data are reported within the entire county and the 500 yard UGA jurisdiction. You can switch map coverage at the top by toggling to the UGA jurisdiction. Below are snapshots from this crime map taken 7/23/2023 showing the narcotic incidents YTD since 1/1/2023. The table below compares YTD numbers (2022 v. 2023) in the 4 categories plotted on the map for all of Athens-Clarke County and within the 500 yard UGA jurisdiction (little less than 1/3 of a mile). While numbers are down overall within the county, numbers within the 500 yard UGA jurisdiction are up. You can read our original post introducing this Interactive Crime map here.
Comparison of All of Athens-Clarke County (ACC) to the UGA 500 yard Jurisdiction
Table comparing relative change in mapped areas by each category. Green highlights decreasing numbers. Yellow highlights increasing numbers. Within the UGA 500 yard jurisdiction, ALL categories increased in the same time period from 2022 versus 2023. Note the 95% increase in number of shell casings.
To Parents of our working group, UGA Parents for Safety and Security, and members of our nonprofit SafeD Athens FB Page,
On April 24, 2023, SafeD Athens/UGA Parents for Safety and Security met with Dan Silk (UGA police chief and VP Public Safety), Kevin Abernethy (VP of Government Relations), and Alison McCullick (UGA Community Outreach) to discuss funding of an ambassador program through Block by Block (Can read proposal here). This programming is simply one layer of added security for UGA students and community members and would provide ‘eyes and ears’ on the ground to alert potential problems, act as courtesy ambassadors to help students navigate incidents off-campus, provide personal escorts as needed late at night, and also provide homeless outreach services using specialized outreach ambassadors on and around campus. UGA administration appears uninterested in safety and security investment outside of UGA property boundaries. Can read our full letter here.
How use of Outreach Ambassadors and a SMART System help the Homeless and Improve Public Safety
We use the ACCPD homeless call reporting (in addition to annual HMIS enrollments) to monitor the transient nature of unsheltered chronically homeless on the streets of Athens. Most reports involve this subgroup of homeless which are of particular interest from a safety and security standpoint.
See updated graph of number of homeless incidents by month as reported by Athens-Clarke County Police Department. While the number of calls may have leveled off in the last couple months, the hours spent on homeless incidents have increased to 8 hours per day in 2023 from 6 hours per day last reported in 2022.
Since 2018 - YTD, ACCPD has encountered approximately 1,200 unique homeless individuals. As you can see from the next graph, over 4,000 incidents were reported in 2022. It is quite common for ACCPD to be called multiple times for same homeless individuals. In fact, ACCPD keeps a running list of “Top 10 Homeless Individuals” for homeless calls.
Currently, the largest number of reported homeless incidents is 34 for person #1 on their list. The frequency drops to 12 reported homeless incidents for person #10 on their list.
Unsheltered homeless on the streets of Athens can be engaged by Outreach Ambassadors utilizing a real-time a SMART System to help provide services, get them off the streets, and improve overall public safety.
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Mother of Hit-and-Run Victim Knox Whiten Recaps Experience with DA Office in Athens-Clarke County
Knox Whiten was a hit-and-run accident victim on March 21, 2021. The travails of his family trying to pursue justice for Knox, through the Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office under DA Deborah Gonzalez, should never be endured by any family. This journey as told by Allison Carron, mother of Knox Whiten.
Judge Norris to Decide on Contempt of Court Ruling Against DA Gonzalez
On June 20, 2023, Attorney Kevin Epps successfully pushed DA Gonzalez to reverse her dismissal of an alleged rape case against a homeless woman in Athens. Fortunately, Judge Haggard vacated a May nolle prosequi ruling, or dismissal, of the case after the homeless victim was located homeless in Brunswick (original argument for dismissal was cited as victim could not be found). A speedy trial can ensue (August 2023).
On June 29, Judge Norris heard arguments as to why DA Gonzalez should be held in contempt for not fully complying with a court order to produce documents requested by Attorney Epps. Attorney Epps has been representing a child rape victim and her mother since their case was dismissed without notification. DA Gonzalez admitted to violating Marsy’s Law in this case. One might ask was this admission to avoid potential discovery? Judge Norris will rule on whether to hold DA Gonzalez in contempt of court for not providing documents as ordered in this case.
UPDATE: Judge Norris ruled that the child rape case can move forward but did not hold DA Gonzalez in contempt and was satisfied with production of documents.
To learn more and read the Writ of Mandamus against DA Gonzalez click here.
The Intersection of Gangs, Drugs, Trafficking, and Homelessness
We talk about the nexus between homelessness, gangs, drugs, and crime all the time. In a recent community meeting on gangs, Attorney General Chris Carr claimed 60% of all violent crimes in Georgia are gang related; over half of violent crimes in America are gang related.
“Throughout our state, gangs are actively engaged in human trafficking as a primary means to make money, and we are using all available resources to fight back and protect our most vulnerable,” said Carr. “By combining the strengths of our Human Trafficking and Gang Prosecution Units, we are working to ensure that those who lead, promote, and encourage this unlawful activity are vigorously pursued and held accountable for their actions.
The 2020 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons shows that 50% of detected victims in 2018 were trafficked for sexual exploitation and many human trafficked cases involve young adolescents. In fact, the first red flag for identifying a trafficked person is “Youth has a runaway history or is homeless.” In the training video, the father sells his daughter to buy drugs.. The drugs he buys are distributed by national gang affiliates and can be available for purchase from low-level homeless gang members.
Our Outreach worker contracted through Block by Block to assess homelessness in Athens identified a potential young homeless drug dealer on North Avenue while walking our identified route. Was this person involved with low-level gang activity?
The Human trafficking Prosecution Unit was initiated in 2019 by the efforts of Georgia First Lady Marty Kemp. With this unit, the AG office works more closely and aggressively with chiefs of police, sheriffs, the GBI, District Attorneys, U.S. Attorneys, and others to rescue victims and put buyers and sellers behind bars.
The unit is complete with dedicated prosecutors and investigators. In 2022, additional resources were provided to expand the HTPU to help rescue more victims.
The Gang Prosecution Unit in Georgia officially began July 1, 2022. As proposed by Governor Kemp and supported by House and Senate leadership, Georgia’s FY 2023 budget included $1.3 million to establish this new Gang Prosecution Unit. The new FY24 budget proposal is $3.1 million. The creation of the Unit was made possible by HB 1134, legislation that provides the Office of the Attorney General with concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute criminal gang activity statewide. This new Unit is housed in the Attorney General’s Prosecution Division, which also includes Carr’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit and the Public Integrity and White Collar Crime Unit.
The homeless/gang/drug/crime nexus exists. Homeless victims are trafficked. Gangs sell drugs to homeless. Homeless sell drugs to make money. Many times sex trafficked victims become homeless if they can get away from their abuser. These homeless individuals at the very least have experienced severe trauma and many have persistent mental illness and substance abuse issues.
Human Trafficking Awareness Training Intro and Modules 1 3 with Introduction by Georgia First Lady Marty Kemp
LAPD officer Deon Joseph works the streets of skid row in Los Angeles where drug use, gangs, human trafficking, and homelessness intersect.