38 days ago
In the next few months, you should see more police officers on the streets in Macon.
Monday, city council's public safety committee backed a resolution to accept a $1.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice for 14 new officers.
Police Chief Mike Burns says the department is authorized for 305 officers, but budgeted for their average number of 285.
He says with the grant, they will have funding for 299 officers.
Burns says, "you can never have too many officers on the street, and this just allows us to get closer to what we are authorized at 305."
He says it will take about two to four months to hire the officers, followed by about eight to nine months of training.
The grant will pay for salaries and benefits for the fourteen officers for three years.
The city will be responsible for retaining the officers for at least a fourth year.
All of the positions are entry level, patrol positions, which Burns says have a starting salary at just over $30,000.
The public safety committee also supported a resolution to move the department's youth and intervention division to a building on the corner of Pio Nono Avenue and Eisenhower Parkway.
At Le Nails in the Westgate Plaza off Pio Nono Avenue, Ngan Vu says he looks forward to having a division of the Macon Police Department moving into a building right around the corner from his shop, and in an area where several businesses have been robbed.
Vu says, "we're happy because the police will come back, to help."
The building at 2525 Pio Nono Avenue, part of the Shoppes at International Place, was previously used by the police department's Area II office.
The building was damaged by the Mother's Day storms so the department had to move out.
Now city council's public safety chairman Virgil Watkins says it is a prime location for the youth and intervention division.
Watkins says, "It is very spacious, youth and intervention will be able to do quite a few events in that parking lot, there is a built in community over there full of kids."
The committee tabled the resolution to lease the space twice in the past because they wanted to make sure the city was getting a good deal on the space.
The city will lease the building for only $10 a year, after a previous price of $7,200.
Watkins says the offer to donate the space at that cost is another good example of the community working with the police department to improve neighborhoods.
After working in the Westgate Plaza for years, Neil Thornton says Macon Police returning to the area, plus an increase in officers, will benefit the city.
Thornton says, "I think it would stop some of the deviant behavior in individuals from certain crimes that have happened in this area."
He says he has noticed a difference in crime from when the police department had an office there before the Mother's Day storms to now.
Ngan Vu says a greater police presence may bring in more customers.
He says, "when they feel safe, they come."
He also hopes the metal bars on the windows will continue to keep his business safe.
Both resolutions will go to full council for a vote next week.
If approved, the youth and intervention department will move to its new location soon after.
The division is currently operating out of the Terminal Station downtown.
