Tag: safety

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Report Shows Overall Crime Down But a Rise in Major Violent Crime

A new report from the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission’s office shows that overall crime within the city fell during 2020, but major violent crime, specifically murder and aggravated assaults, rose at a “disturbing pace.”

Major property crime, which includes burglaries, motor vehicle thefts, and other felony thefts, dropped 8.9 percent in Memphis and 8.4 percent countywide. These drops culminate with a 35.3 percent drop of property crime in the city of Memphis and a 36.4 percent drop countywide over the last 15 years.

The Crime Commission attributes the decrease in crime to a “plummeting” burglary rate. In Memphis, reported burglaries were down 26.1 percent compared to 2019. While the report mentions that it is possible this is due to an increased number of people staying at home because of COVID-19, the burglary rate in Memphis fallen 66.1 percent citywide since 2006.

For Memphians, major violent crime remained a constant threat throughout 2020. Major violent crime, which is represented by murders, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults, was up 24.3 percent citywide and 23.1 percent countywide. Leading the increase were an abnormally high rate of murders, with a 49 percent increase in the number of murders throughout Memphis compared to last year. Countywide there was a 45.9 percent increase in murders.

Reported aggravated assaults were up as well. Aggravated assaults increased by 35.4 percent in the city, and 34.3 percent countywide. Despite the rise in both aggravated assaults and murders, robberies city and countywide were down 12.1 percent and 13.8 percent respectively.

One of the critical factors pointed to by the reported as a driver for the increases in crime was the amount of gun violence throughout the city. The Memphis Police Department recorded a record-breaking 332 homicides in 2020. Of the 332 homicides, 262 of them were with firearms. All in all, there were 6,454 reported violent incidents that involved a firearm, which constituted a 24.6 percent jump when compared to 2019.

The Crime Commission’s president and executive director, Bill Gibbons, said that the city will need more resources to solve the crime problem throughout Memphis.

“We’ve identified evidenced-based practices that, if implemented correctly, will work to reduce violent gun crime significantly. We have leaders committed to them, but it takes resources,” Gibbons said.

The full report can be found on the Crime Commission’s website.

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News News Blog

Memphis Police Department Warns: “Click It or Ticket”

CREDIT: Alexandria Gilliott

Alexandria Gilliott

The Memphis Police Department(MPD) will be partnering with the Tennessee Highway Safety Office (THSO), to crack down on seatbelt offenses going into the Thanksgiving holiday. The move is a part of a nationwide initiative from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) nationwide mobilization of law enforcement agencies.

Called the “Click It or Ticket” campaign, MPD will be out in high numbers ensuring that drivers and passengers are buckled in. In the state of Tennessee, the driver and front-seat passengers are required by law to wear seatbelts. Children under 18 are required to wear seatbelts regardless of their position in the car. Tennessee law does not require adult back seat passengers to buckle up.

“During the ‘Click It or Ticket’ campaign, we’ll be working with our fellow law enforcement officers across local and state lines to ensure the seat belt safety message gets out to all drivers and passengers,” said Colonel Keith Watson “By far, buckling up is the simplest thing you can do to limit injury or save your life during a crash. We see the results of not wearing a seat belt all the time. We see the loss of life and devastating injuries that could’ve been prevented with the simple click of a seat belt. That’s why buckling up is more than just a good idea — it’s the law.”

The “Click It or Ticket” campaign will run from November 16th to the 29th.

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City Will See About 20 Miles of New Bike Facilities in 2020

Since 2010, the city has added approximately 212 miles of bicycle facilities to the city of Memphis, and has plans to continue upping that mileage for the foreseeable future.

Nicholas Oyler, bikeway and pedestrian program manager for the city, said moving into 2020, the city has several projects in the works that with continue to grow Memphis’ bikeway network.

City of Memphis

Over the next several years, Oyler said the city will likely continue the trend from previous years, adding an average of 20 miles worth of new bike facilities each year. The majority of newly installed facilities are included in routine street-resurfacing projects.

“Rather than setting a goal mileage for bikeways in the city, our ultimate goal is to have a street network that works safely and conveniently for everyone, whether walking, bicycling, accessing public transit, or driving,” Oyler said. “This means that just as we have a connected network of streets for cars, with multiple routes possible between points A and B, we need similar network for walking and bicycling.”

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Oyler said the city is using the Memphis Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Mid-South Regional Greenprint and the Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan to guide what the eventual network will look like.

The Greenprint plan, developed in 2015, is a 25-year plan to create 500 miles of greenway trails and 200 miles of bike paths across parts of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. The Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan, created in 2014, focuses on safety, connectivity, accessibility, and transportation mode shifting. The plan identifies and recommendations for ways to improve the bicycle facilities in the region.

The PDF below shows the city’s existing bike facilities as of this month and those slated to be constructed generally within the next two years.
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Down the Road

The Hampline, a project nearly nine years in the making, is slated to be completed in early 2020. The approximate two-mile long corridor will “seamlessly” connect Overton Park and Shelby Farms, “via a neighborhood that has long witnessed disinvestment and a lack of access to opportunities,” Oyler said.

Facebook/Bike Ped Memphis

The Hampline in Binghampton is nearing completion.

Later in 2020, Oyler said the city will look to Jefferson Avenue to begin “long-discussed” improvements between Front and Cleveland. The design process for this has already begun, and in early spring the city will begin the public engagement phase.

Another project Oyler looks forward to in 2020 is the installation of 500 new federally-funded bike racks around the city in partnership with the Memphis Area Transit Authority. The racks will be primarily located near existing bus stops to “encourage synergy between using transit and bicycling for the last- and first-mile connections.”

Finally, Oyler anticipates the launch of a public safety education and awareness campaign around walking and bicycling. The effort will be funded by revenue collected from the city’s Shared Mobility Program, which officially launched in July.

“We have made great strides over the last several years in terms of infrastructure improvements, but this campaign will be some of the city’s first efforts to improve education and awareness among the general public in terms of street safety,” Oyler said.


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Living Spaces Real Estate

See Dick Raise Safety Awareness in Cooper-Young

Meet Dick. The Cooper-Young resident is into karaoke, gardening, and Sunday drives. He listens to Sting and Whitesnake and likes watching Cops. He’s a Virgo, married, has a son (Little Dick), stands 5′ 9″, and takes home from $75,000 to $100,000 a year.

He’s also, when it comes to looking out for his neighbors, clueless. He leaves valuables in his car, he doesn’t pay attention to his surroundings, and he never reports suspicious behavior.

Don’t be a Dick.

That’s the clarion call being put out by the Cooper-Young Community Association (CYCA) in a new safety-awareness campaign being rolled out this week. The “Don’t be a Dick” message is being disseminated through posters around the neighborhood, yard signs, a direct-mail piece with awareness tips to residents, a Web site (safedick.com) and a MySpace page (www.myspace.com/safedick) which features Dick and his family and friends. At the Cooper-Young Festival on September 15th, there will be T-shirts and bumper stickers available touting the idea.

The “Don’t be a Dick” campaign was the brain wave of the ad agency Harvest, located in Cooper-Young. Harvest’s Andrew Holliday created the campaign, and Daniel Brown and Mike Force did the design and illustration work. Of the campaign’s edgy strategy, Holliday says, “It does reflect the neighborhood, but we wanted something that had a little bit of shock value to it … so we draw people in.

“Once you actually read the copy, it’s not offensive at all,” Holliday says. “This is a message that you see people trying to convey all over the place, and a lot of times, it can be boring. We needed a strong headline, and we needed something that was kind of fun to fit the neighborhood.”

Edmund Mackey is the former president and current safety chairperson of the CYCA. “Cooper-Young is probably, after downtown, the most sought after place for tourism and for Memphians to eat and drink,” Mackey says. “We get a lot of traffic from other parts of Memphis. … [We want] patrons of the restaurants, the businesses, and our neighborhood to be vigilant about their own safety.”

Mackey, a Cooper-Young resident for about five years, says, “There was a growing perception that we had a crime problem. We do have things like panhandling, cars getting broken into, sheds getting broken into, but overall crime is down. And those types of things can definitely be prevented or lessened.

Vigilance and safety awareness can prevent many crimes, Mackey says: “The purpose of [Don’t be a Dick] is putting the idea out there to be responsible for your own safety.

Instead of being reactive, we wanted to be proactive and say get the laptop out of the front seat of your car. Get your purse out of the back seat of the car. You can put your car anywhere with a laptop in the front seat, and there are not too many places that people won’t break into it.”

Of the campaign concept Harvest came up with, Mackey says, “I love it. The original tips I came up with weren’t very catchy. They were sort of bland safety tips that I didn’t think would go a long way. What they came up with is definitely racy. But I think it will get people’s attention, get people to talk about it, and get people to be more aware, and that’s the whole goal.” ■ — GA

LivingSpaces@memphisflyer.com

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News

Lawsuit Filed Against Driver in Selmer Crash

CREDIT: AP

SELMER, Tenn. (AP) — The father of a teenager who was among six people killed this month when a drag-racing car spun into a crowd sued the driver and organizers of the charity event Tuesday.

Bruce Replogle, the father of 15-year-old Scarlett Replogle, seeks $10 million in damages.

Authorities say pro drag racer Troy Critchley lost control of his dragster while performing an exhibition burnout – spinning the car’s back tires to send up clouds of smoke – during a parade at the annual Cars for Kids charity event June 16. Besides the six killed, 23 were hospitalized.

Replogle alleges event organizer Larry Price failed to obtain a permit for the parade and failed to take precautions to ensure the safety of spectators. The father also accuses him of encouraging drivers to do unsafe burnouts to attract crowds, despite warnings that they were not safe.

Critchley is accused of being negligent by failing to maintain control of his vehicle and performing dangerous tricks without making sure spectators were protected.

Replogle accuses the vehicle’s owner, AMS Staff Leasing Inc., of negligence by failing to make sure the car was in proper working order and allowing it to be driven by Critchley, who had an “unsafe driving record,” the suit claims.

Critchley, who has not spoken publicly since the accident, was convicted of drunken driving in Virginia in 2000.

A call to Price’s home in Selmer went unanswered Tuesday night. He has retained Memphis attorney Steve Farese Sr., who did not immediately return a message left at his office after hours.

A message left at the Dallas office of AMS Staff Leasing was not immediately returned.

Replogle’s attorney, Lewis L. Cobb, did not immediately return a message left after business hours.

Besides damages, Replogle seeks to stop Price and Cars for Kids from holding another event in Selmer without a detailed safety plan.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.