Politics Behind A Gang Statistic

Thursday, March 13, 2025

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Good morning. This week we’re reporting on a funding boost for the Savannah Police Department from an unlikely source: the city’s prominent arts college. Plus, we’re looking at the politics of a Glynn County gang crime statistic and what Georgia House members put in their budget passed this week.

Questions, comments or story ideas? Reach out to us at staff@thecurrentga.org.

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NEWS: PUBLIC SAFETY

Savannah Police receives major infusion from SCAD

The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), the Georgia arts college which recently reported a net worth of over $1.5 billion, has been both credited with economically revitalizing the City of Savannah and criticized for not paying commensurate taxes with its use of city services, like police and fire protection and water usage.

Now the nonprofit university is providing a major grant to the Savannah Police Department to the tune of $972,000, SCAD announced in late February. Part of the college’s new SCAD SERVE Community Fund program, the funding will be used to boost SPD’s technology like “improved cameras, call boxes, and mapping to ensure the safety and security of our residents and visitors,” the city said in a recent press release.

SCAD has approximately 15,000 students in Savannah and public safety is a top issue for college administrators and parents alike. This is the largest boost SCAD has provided to Savannah Police operations since allowing the department to use the college’s ShotSpotter gunshot detection network more than a decade ago.

The grant funding is not the same thing, however, as regular taxation or an annual payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) like other universities and their host cities have. SCAD is eligible for and uses legitimate educational tax exemptions on its properties as a university. It’s also one of the largest landlords in the city. According to the latest calculation by The Current‘s data reporter, Maggie Lee:

SCAD owned 108 pieces of Chatham County real estate as of the beginning of last year, according to the latest available complete county tax digest. The county valued those properties at a total $486 million. But the school’s property tax bill last year was only about $105,000 — payable on its eight commercial premises.

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INVESTIGATIVE: PUBLIC SAFETY

Gang statistic misstated, fissures and issues revealed

Earlier this week, The Current fact-checked a statistic by the Glynn County Police Department Chief, who said at a public meeting that 60% of violent crime in the county was caused by gangs.

We asked other law enforcement leaders to validate the statistic, queried a statewide gang expert and asked the chief himself about it. In our interview with the chief, he walked back the statistic as more of an approximation.

The story revealed a broader conversation about the fraught world of gang statistic tracking, violence in Brunswick involving teenagers and fissures in county law enforcement cooperation.

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NEWS: GOVERNING

Budget takeaway: Spending on poor Georgia students

The state budget for next year passed the House this week, allocating $37.7 billion that seeks to improve Georgia prisons and schools.

The allocated $28 million alone in extra funding to educate poor children in the state is novel for a Georgia budget, as this headline from the Associated Press notes: “Georgia budget proposes spending more on poor students for the first time.”

There’s also tens of millions to be spent on creating a registry of troubled kids as part of a school safety bill, mental health counseling for middle and high schools and increased literacy initiatives. As recent research indicates, increased investment in public education has the promise to decrease the likelihood of involvement in crime later in life.

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