MPD’s new summer safety plan begins Monday; paying great attention to reducing car theft

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – A quest to find some of the city’s most dangerous criminals.

Over the next several weeks, the Memphis Police Department will work with agencies to execute outstanding aggravated assault warrants.

This is just one part of MPD’s Summer Safety Plan. Work on the Summer Safety Plan actually started over the December holidays.

MPD says they held countless meetings with the community and business leaders about what they wanted to see in the plan.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the biggest concern on everyone’s list was reducing car theft.

Starting Monday, MPD will be running its summer schedule.

“It’s certainly stronger than what we’ve had in the Covid years,” Assistant Police Chief Don Crowe said.

Crowe says reducing gun crime and car theft are top priorities.

A single patrol will have a greater presence in residential complexes, restaurants and retail parking lots during the evening hours.

So far in 2023, MPD is averaging 4 and a half carjacking arrests per day, Crowe says.

“But now we want everyone to get involved, we want business owners to get involved and make their parking lot safe so thieves don’t come into their parking lot and steal cars,” Crowe said.

Crowe says that means better lighting, adding private security and integrating their surveillance camera with MPD’s Real Crime Center through the Connect 2 Memphis program.

The program gives officers a technological advantage when tracking down car thefts.

MPD says about 230 businesses have signed up for the program. Crowe hopes more than 10,000 businesses will join the program.

More information about the program can be found here Here.

So far in 2023, more than 6,000 car thefts have been reported, often by minors.

This summer, there was a new push to enforce the city’s curfew laws.

“It should have been done years ago and the parents should have been held accountable,” said Darrius Stanford, who works at the Greenlaw Community Center next door.

This week there was talk of using the facility to house teenagers who break curfew until their parents pick them up.

That idea was shut down, instead, MPD says this summer, curfews will be enforced like any other summer.

“So when an officer encounters a juvenile for a juvenile curfew violation, they have to find a parent or guardian and reunite that child with the parent, so that’s what we did last summer and the summer before we did,” Crowe said. .

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