Birmingham police chief gives Birmingham City Council tough report on crime
Birmingham Police Chief Patrick D. Smith gave the Birmingham City Council — at its regular meeting for Tuesday, May 21 — a snapshot of violent crime in the city and told members he would not sugarcoat his report. “I have to tell you the truth,” he said.
The truth, according to the Tuscaloosa native who spent 28 years at the Los Angeles Police Department, is that homicides in the city have steadily increased.
In 2014, the city had only 51 homicides, but there were 78 homicides in 2015, 92 in 2016, 99 in 2017 and 100 in 2018, according to Smith. And the city, so far in 2019, is on pace to match the total number of killings for 2018.
However, there are “some signs of progress,” Smith said.
“We’re doing what we can to address crime in the city,” he said.
He also asked for patience. “We did not get here overnight and we will not go back overnight, but I'm here to give you my commitment that we will address the crime in the city,” he said.
The Birmingham Police Department officers and others also have to do more work with the community to achieve long-term improvement, according to Smith. “We have got to do more to reach out and help people and save people in our community,” he said.
The chief said that the BPD has made or is making numerous improvements in the way it polices the city. The department has “revamped” its workforce and tried to move officers around to the right areas of the city.
Officers are being retrained on tactics. The department is introducing new technology to make policing more effective and track its efforts.
The BPD has a daily crime briefing at 1 p.m. and seeks to hold its captains accountable for crime in their precincts.
The BPD is also entering a new agreement with the Birmingham Housing Authority to provide better policing at their facilities. Those housing developments “account for 10-15% of the crime in the city,” Smith said.
The department will continue to set up traffic checkpoints around the city, according to Smith, who said this is an important tactic. “Last year, our officers took 2,300 weapons off the street, and they’ve taken 800 this year,” he said. “That’s 3,000 illegally possessed handguns off the street. We can see there is an impact.”
Smith said that people can feel safe in Birmingham, despite the violence. “My answer to you is yes. Absolutely. Without a doubt,” he said.
One reason is that most of the homicides in Birmingham in 2018 — 66 of 100 — were carried out by people the victim knew. In addition, 37 of them were committed inside a residence, not out on the streets.
And the city’s parks are safe, according to Smith. There have been no homicides in the parks in 2019, and there was only one in 2018, Smith said.
Many of the killings are “fueled by domestic incidents and retaliation,” Smith said.
However, another aspect of these crimes — the racial makeup of the victims and perpetrators — is a very troubling one for the city, according to Smith.
“I will touch on an area that’s a sore spot for a lot of people,” Smith said. “In 2018, 75 of the 100 victims were young black men. This year, of the 37 [homicides] 31 were young black men.”
And 86 of the suspects last year were young black men, according to Smith.
“We have got to do more,” he said.
Police officers in the city will be expected to be a positive part of the community, to serve “as mentors and change agents.”
“These are the things they said when they wanted the job, so this is the expectation I have,” he said.
After some comments by councilor Steven Hoyt and Mayor Woodfin regarding the need to provide jobs and hope to the city’s youth and help turn them away from crime, Smith stressed that he is “very much about our young people.”
He said that the department has hosted several community meetings and a teen summit and seeks to get more young people to join the force.
Hired by Woodfin in June 2018 after a national search, Smith focused on crime reduction strategies and building public trust at the LAPD, where he ultimately served as police commander.
Smith told City Council President Valerie Abbott today that the BPD hopes to have a new high-tech real-time crime center in operation by mid- to late 2020.
The center will improve officer safety and provide them with more information as they respond to calls, according to Smith.
So the department can get “the most bang for our buck,” Smith said that he has sent people to look at similar centers in Chicago, Detroit, New York and Memphis.