MEMPHIS, Tenn. — More than a dozen children were homicide victims this year.
A 15-year-old girl shot and killed in Whitehaven. A 17-year-old boy gunned down on a basketball court behind a Frayser school.
Now, an 18-year-old mother was shot and killed in downtown Memphis days before her high school graduation.
She was one of three killings over an eight-hour period this weekend.
People are fed up with the violence, so we asked the mayor what’s being done to stop it since he promised safer streets while campaigning.
“We are doing things right now. We have more police officers on the street now then when we did when I took over on January 1,” said Mayor Jim Strickland.
He said reorganizing some units in MPD and teaming with the Shelby County Sherriff’s Office on special operations lead to 394 arrests since February 1.
“Violent crime was reduced by 10% in April from the year before. Unfortunately, the homicides have not slowed down,” said Strickland. “These problems are really too big for city government alone to fix.”
Right now, Memphis is averaging around four murders a week.
“I’m a father of a 14-year-old and a 10-year-old child. I totally understand what people are feeling. I can understand that in certain neighborhoods, people don’t feel safe walking outside and letting their kids go outside,” he said.
But the mayor doesn’t have a way to change those opinions.
Now, schools are approaching summer break. A time violence usually spikes.
Strickland said there will be more officers stationed at community centers to keep kids safe.
He’d like to better enforce the curfew too, but said MPD doesn’t have the manpower.
“The city is one part to solve this problem, but we need the community wide support,” he said. “We need neighbors, we need community leaders, and we need faith-based leaders to really help get involved to supplement what the city is doing.”
Strickland said the community needs to step up like volunteering, mentoring children and forming neighborhood watches.
That’s what Cooper Young did.
“We revamped it back in mid-December,” said Cooper Young Neighborhood Watch Coordinator Aaron James.
It even got a city grant to install security cameras.
“It provides neighbors the availability and opportunity to guard their own wellbeing,” he said.
Once Cooper Young figures out what exactly works to stop crime, it wants to work with communities it shares a border with.
Meanwhile, the mayor said he is also working with the union and MPD to recruit and retain officers.
