Three local organizations bought a full-page ad in Sunday’s newspaper calling on city and county officials to quit bickering and keep the Savannah-Chatham police department merged.
“I don’t see how the de-merger improves public safety,” said Tourism Leadership Council President and CEO Michael Owens, whose organization was among those who took out the ad. “And it’s just that simple.”
After several months of back-and-forth proposals about the future of the department, which has been merged for about a decade, county officials late last month instructed County Manager Lee Smith to hire a firm to find a county police chief.
At the time, Smith told county commissioners that negotiations were close but he and City Manager Stephanie Cutter still disagreed on a couple of points, such as locations of precincts and the division of costs. Commission Chairman Al Scott said a decision with the city would need to be reached by the end of March.
In the advertisement Sunday, to which Savannah Mayor Edna Jackson responded Wednesday, the TLC and the downtown neighborhood and business associations wrote that public safety has become a hostage in a political standoff.
The organizations asked for the city and county to take advantage of an outside mediator and said the former Savannah and Chatham County police departments were merged to provide better service and to eliminate redundancies.
“Criminals do not respect boundaries,” said Ruel Joyner, president of the Savannah Downtown Business Association. “They cross city-county lines. There was a reason we consolidated these two entities.”
Police in the area constantly work together and often assist other agencies.
In a letter addressed to the Tourism Leadership Council, Jackson on Wednesday said public safety is the city’s top priority, adding that she, Scott, and both managers agree on most issues and are continuing to talk.
“We simply cannot fathom either side allowing the breakup of Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police without trying every means available to compromise on the few outstanding issues,” Jackson said.
Jackson said Part 1 crimes have dropped 28 percent across the metro police department’s jurisdiction since the merger, including a 50 percent reduction in unincorporated Chatham County and 25 percent in Savannah. She did, however, say there’s still too much violent crime.
According to the FBI, part 1 crimes — which include property crimes and violent acts such as homicides and robberies — have in general declined across the country over the last few years. Those statistics, which last year were updated to include 2013, can be viewed at FBI.gov.
Cutter and Smith are scheduled to meet Friday to discuss the merger, said city spokesman Bret Bell.
Bell said the major disagreement is a proposal by the county to break up police precincts so they don’t cross jurisdictional lines.
“From the city’s perspective, we feel like that is the major reason we merged in the first place,” Bell said.
Commissioner Tony Center, whose constituency includes residents of both the city and unincorporated county, said he thinks the primary disagreement is funding. He said he felt the amount unincorporated county residents pay is disproportionate.
“I personally believe that the city of Savannah has to agree to change the funding formula,” Center said, adding that he would prefer to keep a merged department.
Melinda Allen, president of the Savannah Downtown Neighborhood Association, said she was encouraged by the mayor’s response.
“I feel at this time, while we’re finally moving forward with the new chief, it would really put us back to break the police force up and have the county go out on their own,” Allen said.
Officials with the three organizations said they had not received any sort of response from the county by Wednesday afternoon. A call for comment from the county manager’s office was not returned.