Savannah Police Chief WIllie Lovett says Operation Total Focus still paying dividends
Savannah City Council heard about crime in Savannah Thursday, and what police are doing to stop it.
It was just two weeks ago when News 3 rode along with Savannah-Chatham Police as they did an "in force" operation in several neighborhoods around the city.
The idea, to show criminals and the law abiding citizens that officers are investigating and cracking down on crime, and apparently the criminals were watching, too.
In the week leading up to and including total focus, there were 20 violent crimes committed in Savannah.
The week after the operation, there were only 10.
That's also below the weekly average for 2012, which was 17.
Property crimes, like thefts, burglary and shoplifting, were also down from 158 in the first week of February to just 123 the week after "total focus".
That's way below the 2012 average of 175 property crimes per week.
"This is not something we can do on a day to day basis, but it's something we do periodically and we will continue to do and we always yield excellent results," said Savannah-Chatham Police Chief Willie Lovett. "What we try and do is when we have a total focus, we try and follow up on it. It's never just one day operation. We always make it at least two days and then we follow up. Maybe not with the same resources as that weekend, but we always come back."
Chief Lovett says he doesn't have the money to do a "total focus" operation every week, but hopes to continue it once every month or every quarter.
Those operations are needed. while total crime is down compared to this time last year, violent crimes are up by almost 50%.
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Savannah Police Chief WIllie Lovett says Operation Total Focus still paying dividends
