VALDOSTA, Ga. — According to NeighborhoodScout.com, 98 percent of the cities in America are safer than Valdosta.
Those stats are not good, but as our WTXL's Blake Levine explains, city leaders say they are working hard to get better.
In 2018, property and violent crimes were down 14 percent in Valdosta.
So far during the first quarter of 2019, things have yet to improve.
"For the year 2019, so far we have not seen a significant increase or decrease," said Lt. Adam Bembry, Public Information Officer with the Valdosta Police Department.
Despite the lack of change in the overall numbers, the police department is happy the totals are under the 2017 numbers.
With crime stats extremely high, Valdosta is trying to make some changes, adding four new positions at the police department in each of the next four years.
"With the census coming up and we are hoping to grow there, so with that growth we kind of want to maintain it and make sure we are still covering all aspects of the city and all parts of the city safely for the citizens here," said Ashlyn Becton, Public Information Officer for City of Valdosta.
With the new positions coming, Bembry says it will only improve the department's current efforts to decrease crime.
"Anytime you can lower response time, you are able to saturate an area with more staffing and absolutely has a phenomenal effect. You are able to talk to more witnesses, have more eyes in the field," said Bembry.
In addition to hiring more people, Valdosta Police are also working on strengthening existing plans already in place.
"The main thing we are containing to push is communication with our civilians," said Bembry. "We are still trying to push as hard as we can in addition to our patrol officers getting out and absolutely stopping and taking to people."
The Valdosta Police Department currently has 155 people on staff with a majority being patrol officers.
The plan is to use the new job hires to add to the patrol force.
