TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — It may take a village to raise a child, but it takes community effort to curb crime.
That's why Thursday night, Tallahassee Police, city leaders, community groups and volunteers walked the blocks of Griffin Heights as part of "Operation Safe Neighborhoods."
It might be a sultry summer but that's not keeping Moms Demand Action volunteer Beth DuMond and others from going door-to-door, meeting neighbors in the Griffin Heights neighborhood and reminding them to stay safe.
"The violence that's happening in Tallahassee is a community wide problem, not specific to certain areas, so it's important that people from all over the community come together to take part in solutions," DuMond explained.
Solutions like reporting crime they see, or suggestions they have to make the neighborhoods safer.
City of Tallahassee commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox said, "I hope people understand it's not us versus them, it's a 'we' and concerned about their concerns and they can trust us and we'll take their issues and try to resolve them."
But cracking down on crime, is going to take everyone's help and it can be as simple as locking your car doors at night.
"If we can do just that one thing in Tallahassee, that will go so far in terms of keeping guns off the streets and out of the hands of dangerous people so lock up guns safely and don't keep them in cars overnight," DuMond explained.
The last "Operation Safe Neighborhood" event was in the Bond community. There's no word on when the next one will be held.
Reducing crime one neighborhood at a time.
That's the mission of Thursday's Operation Safe Neighborhoods as Tallahassee Police officers, city leaders and the community will be handing out safety information about crime and what to be aware of.
The Tallahassee Police Department has been busy all summer, trying to reduce crime in the entire community.
Their programs like Operation Safe Neighborhoods and Safe Summer is also in progress, and includes putting several officers on the streets, conducting traffic stops and doing surveillance of crime-prone areas in Tallahassee.
They say between June 5 and July 20, they made 110 arrests, recovered 8 guns, and seized illegal drugs, including over 12 pounds of marijuana, 61 grams of cocaine, and 200 grams of Flakka.
"These partnerships are so important in preventing crime and trying to be more proactive instead of us just reacting to crime and its a team effort," said TPD Officer Rachelle Denmark. "I think it's been very successful with a lot of different types of drugs off the street, really bad stuff and the guns of course that we are recovering. I mean our goal is overall improve community safety."
Operation Safe Summer will continue for several more weeks, as for Operation Safe Neighborhood, you can get involved on Thursday night.
The walk begins at 6:00 p.m. and goes until 8:00 p.m. at Griffin Primitive Baptist Church.
