The police chiefs of Savannah and Chatham County updated some 70 county residents on Sunday about the state of public safety in the city and the county, saying violent crime was trending downward and cases of fraud increasing.

Yet in the approximately half-hour briefing and discussion at the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, hosted by the NAACP’s Savannah Branch, the police chiefs — Lenny Gunther of Savannah and Jeff Hadley of Chatham County — provided only snapshots on the state of public safety and took but two questions from the audience. 

Missing from the discussions were topics top of many residents’ minds: Flock and other surveillance technology deployed by area police departments and the wave of shootings that have voters on edge.

Lenny Gunther

For example, Gunther omitted any mention of the three shootings in Savannah over the weekend on Live Oak Street, Crescent Drive and West Bay Street. 

When asked by a reporter about the shooting along West Bay Street on Saturday night, Gunther noted that there were no injuries and his officers were working to identify the individuals involved.

Instead, Gunther focused on data that he said showed that violent crime is trending downward, while instances of property crime were rising.

Gunther also emphasized that crimes during the summer of 2026 were the lowest number in the last decade, something he said was due to city-sponsored community programs such as 100 Days of Summer. 

Jeff Hadley

Publicly available crime data confirm that violent crime dropped from Jan. 1, 2026, to Sept. 19, 2026, compared to the same period in 2025. However, statisticians say that a longer framework is necessary to accurately reflect crime trends in cities like Savannah.

As for the wider county, Chatham’s police chief, Jeff Hadley, said that unincorporated Chatham County has seen a 6.5% reduction in crime compared to last year. 

Fraud, apparently, was on the rise. There has been a 113 percent increase in money scammed from residents, with $6.4 million lost so far this year. Hadley said money lost to scams is difficult to retrieve, noting that his department has so far recovered $1,500.