Since October, Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons has talked about curbing gun violence. He has held several roundtables where politicians told the audiences at the Brownsville Community Center what they are going to do.
The sheriff first talked about launching a real-time crime center, and then he announced at the first of the year that he would gather the city, county, and local nonprofits to focus on cleaning up a part of the community.
At his January roundtable, Sheriff Simmons told his panel and the audience, “Let’s prove we can come together and collaborate to bring what we need to the table.”
So far, not much has been brought to the table.
Operation Brownsville – a 60-day intiative to clean-up a Brownsville area bordered by Avery, Kirk, Jackson and A streets – was launched on April 24. Yesterday, I reported the ECSO and Pensacola Police Department displayed no increase in law enforcement activities in the area last week.
Last night, nine people showed up for the sheriff’s first community conversation. Three of the people were Commissioner Lumon May, Assistant County Administrator Wesley Hall and me. Only one of the citizens in attendance was Black, and he walked out after about 10 minutes of listening to David “Blue Lights” Craig ramble about crime prevention.
No Sheriff Chips Simmons, Police Chief Eric Randle or any deputies or police officers were at the Brownsville Community Center. No elected officials, except for Commissioner May. WEAR-TV had a car in the parking lot but there was no reason to film the meeting.
This is an embarrassing start to an initiative that appears to have no real substance.
At his April 25 press conference, I asked Mayor D.C. Reeves what was the city’s involvement in Operation Brownsville. He gave a very vague answer.
“Chief Randall’s been at the forefront of that,” he said. ” I know he’s been working with the sheriff’s department in terms of the area that’s been designated in the city, somes in the county.”
He continued, “I’d have to have Chief Randall speak to what we’re doing day to day. But if we’ve got an effort in our city that helps improve quality of life and it’s something that we think is gonna be a net benefit to the city, then we’re gonna always, explore what those opportunities are.”
Sheriff Simmons told me that Operation Brownsville was pilot program that he hoped to duplicate in othere neighborhoods.
If he wants his pilot program to create something worth duplicating, the sheriff has five weeks to get his initiative into a higher gear.