Savannah Succeeds in Homicide Metric

September 22, 2022

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Barometer of police success?

Savannah is soaring over other cities when it comes to a key policing metric: solving murders.

So far in 2022, the Savannah Police Department is reporting a homicide clearance rate — the rate at which police solve a crime — of 79%. In the three years prior, the rate was over 80%.

The numbers surpass police departments from big cities like New York and Los Angeles to similarly-sized ones like Charleston, S.C., and Knoxville, Tenn., according to 2020 data.

Savannah’s homicide unit pointed to the statistic as the result of dedicated officers and hard work. But some public safety experts said clearance rates are not the best indicator of police success.

The rates also don’t impress family members of homicide victims whose cases have gone cold.

Read The Current’s investigation into the standout metric, pitfalls and missing data, and what types of murders occur in Savannah.

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Gun violence in Georgia

Across the country, gun deaths hit a new all-time high last year … for the second year in a row, according to data from the Centers for Disease in Control and Prevention.

The CDC reported 48,832 people died from gunshot wounds last year, which is up from the high of 45,222 in 2020. Experts interviewed by The Trace cite the social upheaval caused by the pandemic in 2020 and the massive surge in gun sales the same year as the main drivers of the gun violence.

Georgia’s gun deaths increased by twice as much compared to the rest of the country.

Gun deaths in Georgia last year reached 2,200, an increase of about 15% from 2020’s figure of 1,898.

According to data compiled by The Trace, close to 650,000 guns were purchased in Georgia in 2020, more than the amount bought in 2018 and 2019 combined. 

In April 2022, Georgia legislators relaxed restrictions, allowing most anyone to carry a gun publicly without a permit or background check necessary.

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Promises made, promises kept?

Chatham County District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones, a Democrat, ran her campaign for DA in 2020, promising reforms in her bid to unseat her former boss and Republican incumbent Meg Heap.

Some of those reforms included increasing court efficiency, reducing the criminalization of poverty, and “(addressing) implicit bias practices is charging and plea bargaining,” according to her campaign website at the time (the site is now defunct, but it is saved on the web archive).

If you want to find out about the status of those reforms, this weekend is your chance.

On Sunday at 4 p.m., Jones is schedule to deliver a speech at the Savannah Branch NAACP meeting about the progress of those reforms.

The meeting is taking place at First African Baptist Church at 23 Montgomery Street. It is open to the public.

The DA will “also provide an update on the new Diversion Program for young adults, and will review her decision not to prosecute individuals with small, misdemeanor amounts of marijuana,” according to a press release.

She will also take questions from NAACP members and the public in attendance, it states.

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Corrected link

In last week’s newsletter, The Current reported on how Chatham County spent $5.6 million in federal funds on public safety related items like the jail, courts, and sheriff’s office.

Here is the corrected link with the full spending report.

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Heads up!

A note from our managing editor, Susan Catron:

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From here, you can click on the “my account” button at the top right corner of the site if you’d like to create a password or manage any of your newsletter subscription or donation preferences. If you don’t want to create a password, that’s ok, too! You can always use the link from the verification email to sign-in and manage your account.

Registration isn’t mandatory, but it will help us learn more about you, your reading preferences and help us communicate well with you over time. 

Coming soon: A new way to get the latest from The Current!

Questions or hiccups?: Let me know at susan.thecurrent@gmail.com. 

Thanks!

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