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Law enforcement leaders meet

• Law enforcement leaders say they are pleased with a meeting between the seven agencies on Monday.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — Albany and Dougherty County law enforcement heads met Monday afternoon to discuss various issues that have been raised recently concerning communications and jurisdiction, along with other issues, officials said.

During the meeting, which was a result of City Manager Alfred Lott’s directive to Albany Police Chief James Younger to meet with all seven city and county law enforcement agencies, leaders discussed crime trends, communication and jurisdictional issues, Younger said Monday.

“This is the first of regularly scheduled meetings we plan to have in future,” Younger said. “By sharing information between agencies, we can better address the issue (of juvenile crime and other crime trends) in the entire metro area. We’ll be able to not only solve more crimes, but come up with some prevention strategies.”

On July 19, Younger sent a memo to the Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office, the Dougherty County Police Department, Albany State University police, Dougherty County School System police, the Albany-Dougherty Drug Unit, Dougherty District Attorney Ken Hodges and Southwest Georgia Regional Airport security.

In the memo, Younger listed several topics of discussion for the meeting, including jurisdictional and homeland security issues, gangs, drugs, school safety and crime trends and strategies.

The memo came two days after City Commissioner Morris Gurr berated Younger during a commission meeting for conveying to the public the perception that he was not cooperating with other law enforcement agencies.

After that City Commission meeting, Lott said he would require Younger “to initiate and establish periodic one-on-one meetings with all seven law enforcement agencies in the county to discuss issues like jurisdiction, school safety and homeland security.”

Officials who attended the meeting Monday said they were encouraged about future cooperation and communication with the APD.

“I feel a number of problems our community has had in the past center around communication,” Hodges said Monday evening. “It was very a cordial meeting. There was no animosity. Nothing negative I think was raised.

“I think it’s a positive step and a step in the right direction.”

The group discussed the impact of juvenile crime in Albany, and how the agencies could work together to combat it, Hodges said.

“(Younger) came in with a specific agenda,” he said. “At the top of that list was juvenile crime and gang activity and what we could do to try to address that in a cooperative effort.

“He came with his set of ideas, and certainly interagency cooperation was an overriding theme in everything we discussed.”

County Police Chief Don Cheek agreed that the meeting was good for law enforcement in Albany and Dougherty County. The first step, Cheek said, is to sit down and figure out how the agencies can cooperate to fight crime in the area.

“All in all, I think it was a good step in the right direction,” Cheek said. “We talked about some issues generally with crime prevention and juveniles and drugs.

“I think the first positive thing we got out of it is we sat around the table and talked faced to face. The only way we’re going to move along is with good dialogue. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been that way all along, but I think we’re moving in the right direction.

“What happens in the city affects me out in the county. ... Bad guys don’t recognize jurisdictional lines.”

Dougherty County Sheriff Jamil Saba said that the agencies have to come together to make the Good Life City more than just a slogan.

“I thought the meeting went well,” he said. “We’ve got to get it together and work it out to make Albany a better place to live. ... We call it the ‘Good Life City,’ we need to make it that way. That’s what law enforcement is supposed to do.”

Younger said he was happy with the meeting, too, and said the sessions would go on indefinitely because there will always be a need for law enforcement to cooperate.

“I foresee these meetings going on indefinitely because even if crime goes down, there still may be other issues we need to address. And certainly prevention is something we all need to get more involved in,” he said. “Just, overall, I think the meeting was very productive. I think what we’ve basically agreed to do is have officers at the line level meet and exchange information, and we, as administrators, would meet regularly, too.”

Officials at this meeting did not address any of the plethora of Special Weapons and Tactics-related issues that have been raised in the last few months, but a special meeting is planned for next week to address those.

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