The Plan
Operation: Safe Community is a 5-year crime reduction initiative that, when fully implemented, will make Memphis and Shelby County one of the safest communities of its size in the nation by the end of 2011.
The Memphis Shelby Crime Commission, spearheading Operation: Safe Community, utilizes the 15 research-based strategies as a roadmap for achieving this aggressive goal for our community.
Strategy Leaders were recruited by the chair of Operation: Safe Community, Shelby County District Attorney General Bill Gibbons, in fall of 2008 to maintain a commitment to each strategy throughout implementation.
Strategy Leaders also count on the unwavering support of community partnerships to provide vital resources and knowledge from a grassroots level.
Below are OSC’s 15 strategies and Strategy Leaders.
Strategy 1:
Deploy police officers based upon sound data and research.
Team Leaders: Mark Luttrell, Sheriff, Shelby County and Larry A. Godwin, Director, Memphis Police Dept.
Strategy 2:
Expand the Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN) law enforcement partnership model in Shelby County.
Team Leader: Larry Laurenzi, U.S. Attorney
Strategy 3:
Toughen state laws for gun crime.
Team Leaders: John DeBerry, State Representative and Mark Norris, State Senator
Strategy 4:
Reduce the caseload per prosecutor in the District Attorney’s office for more effective prosecution.
Team Leaders: Mike Carpenter, County Commissioner, Shelby and Jim Kyle, State Senator
Strategy 5:
Expand Drug Court program so that it operates consistently and at full capacity.
Team Leader: Joe Ford, Mayor, Shelby County and Mark Luttrell, Sheriff, Shelby County
Strategy 6:
Design and implement a comprehensive gang intervention strategy.
Team Leader: Prof. Richard Janikowski, Associate Professor and Director of C3R, University of Memphis
Strategy 7:
Sustain and expand student safety initiatives in public school systems.
Team Leaders: Dr. Kriner Cash, Superintendent, Memphis City Schools and John Aitken, Superintendent, Shelby County Schools
Strategy 8:
Implement mentoring-based truancy reduction program.
Team Leader: Harold Collins, District Attorney General's Office
Strategy 9:
Launch the JustCare 180° program to “turnaround” youth charged with unruly and delinquent offenses.
Team Leader: Judge Curtis Person, Memphis and Shelby County Juvenile Court
Strategy 10:
Expand juvenile offender re-entry programs.
Team Leader: Steve Hornsby, Deputy Commissioner of Juvenile Justice, TN Dept. of Children’s Services
Strategy 11:
Expand and coordinate adult offender re-entry programs.
Team Leaders: A C Wharton, Mayor, City of Memphis and Charles Traughber, Chairman, TN Board of Probation and Parole
Strategy 12:
Implement proactive and coordinated “problem properties” system.
Team Leader: A C Wharton, Mayor, City of Memphis
Strategy 13:
Build communications campaign that promotes tough consequences for crime.
Team Leader: Shea Flinn, Councilman, Memphis
Strategy 14:
Implement coordinated domestic violence initiative.
Team Leaders: Reid Hedgepeth, Councilman, Memphis and Deidre Malone, County Commissioner, Shelby
Strategy 15:
Implemented “Operation Safe Surrender.”