Jacksonville Violent Crime Reduction Initiative

Jacksonville is located in Central Alabama in Calhoun County, home to Jacksonville State University. The city is protected by not just the local police department but also the University Police Department serves the campus and dual aid when requested.

            Jacksonville has a poverty rate of 25.8% with around 30.5% of people under 18 – and 28.7% of people aged 18 to 64 years – living in poverty. A wide spectrum of crime disproportionately effects these people. Jacksonville has a higher crime rate than both the State and US averages. People in this demographic also are disproportionately affected by mass casualty events. Alabama sits inside America’s southern severe tornado zone and suffers an average of 44 tornadoes per annum. Jacksonville’s Tornado Index score is higher than the State average and substantially higher than the figure for the USA as a whole.

            It follows, therefore, that poorer citizens of Jacksonville will feel the greatest benefit of any reduction in crime in our city. Our two police forces feel that this outcome alone is ample justification for the grant application, but of course any benefits would extend to the wider community, too.

         Jacksonville Police Department will purchase six Enhanced Series Mobile Radios, six Enhanced Portable Radios, and 27 remote speaker microphones for Portable Radios to upgrade communication services between departments and other local law enforcement. We feel that it is of utmost importance to upgrade our communication services to be able to quickly and accurately report relevant information to and from our department to other departments or LE services that we are working with in response to ongoing activities and investigations.
           

            With the help of the Department of Criminal Justice and Forensic Investigation’s Center for Best Practices in Law Enforcement based at Jacksonville State University; we will work in tandem with researchers to compile a survey to be sent out to residents and business owners to find out how they feel the police department can improve on responding to and reducing crime in the community.  We also hope to find out ways that those in the community feel that we can improve community relations.  The team at JSU will also work with the department to do quarterly reports to give us data on how our initiatives are helping to reduce crime, as well as advise up on ways that we could make changes to reach our goals of reducing crime across Jacksonville.

            We also are proposing the BDI Project – a mural project whereby walls of prominent buildings are painted with designs incorporating eye imagery. Evidence suggests that people feel uneasy about committing crime when they are being watched, and BDI will exploit this phenomenon to see if crime is deterred by the presence of eye imagery.  With this program we will purchase equipment and supplies needed to complete the murals as well as offer a stipend to the artist that are painting them. This project can enhance awareness and accountability within the community as well as reduce crime. This, too, might raise exciting possibilities for other communities.