I asked Mayor D.C. Reeves about Operation Brownsville at his weekly press conference on Tuesday morning.
“Here’s what I know now; we looked at this first week – 200 calls for service last year, 233 this week,” he said. “We had two arrests yesterday. We had a traffic stop that resulted in one arrest on an outstanding sheriff’s office warrant. And then we made an additional arrest; it was a traffic stop, but it was possession of a firearm by convicted felon and intent to distribute, tampering and destroying evidence.”
The mayor continued, “I know it sounds evasive, but there are things that we’re working on, too, that we can’t discuss. It defeats the purpose if we’re divulging everything that we’re doing to the media.”
INWEEKLY: Is city code enforcement doing anything in the initiative’s designated district?
“I know there was a house – I believe it was on West Jackson – that code enforcement went out to yesterday and, that we’re making progress on that,” Reeves said.
INWEEKLY: So you’re happy with what’s happening with Operation Brownsville?
“I’m happy that PPD’s out there,” said the mayor. “When you have arrest of someone with a felony possessing a firearm, that’s how we got here…gun violence.”
He later added, “We’re just wanting to have a greater emphasis on what’s happening out there—”
INWEEKLY: Do you think that’s happening?
“I can speak for the Pensacola Police Department,” Mayor Reeves said. “I’ve seen enough data and measurement in these specific areas to know that we are certainly taking an emphasis in this area, as we said we would. I can’t speak to every tactic that we’re taking on, and whether it is or isn’t effective, I would have to let the police department do that.”