MACON, Ga. — Bibb County Sheriff David Davis says crime numbers are on the way down in west Macon.
The sheriff made the announcement at Monday night's Westside Neighbors United meeting at Greater Zion Hill Baptist Church. At the meeting, people shared concerns from blight, to trash, to troublesome convenience stores, to shootings; but the sheriff reported promising crime numbers.
"Altogether, it's down about 21% in the area that's covered by Westside United," Davis said.
He says those statistics are compared to this time last year, but there's more to do to keep people safe.
"We just got a $1.6 million grant from the governor's office. From the State of Georgia," Davis told a crowd of about 20.
All that money will go toward tag-reading FLOCK cameras. The sheriff says that system will help them track suspects throughout Central Georgia. Business owner Roy West asked him about things like crime hot-spots.
"What is it that we do about these hot spots?" he asked. "I can tell you about through the years, I've hired off-duty police people. And people are still being killed."
Davis says they're working on surveillance methods for hot-spots, but asked people to give his team more time. Davis says they're getting ready to shut down M&M Food Mart again. The county has called it a "magnet for crime."
M&M closed last year, but later reopened with strict regulations. Sheriff Davis says the store isn't following them.
"They had conditions. They had to close up at 11:00. Well, guess what? They ain't," he said.
Davis also spent a lot of time at the meeting giving out his cell phone number, telling people if his deputies aren't responding, call him personally.
Another big question people had was why so many teenagers are able to walk around neighborhoods with guns. Davis told the group to call him, or 911, if they see anything like that. He suggested people confront the teens' parents about the behavior, because sometimes parents may not know what their child is doing.