Now is the time to fight back against crime, says WM City Council

Now is the time to fight back against crime, says WM City Council

Pulliaum: ‘ We need to involve the community’

news@theeveningtimes.com

What would have been a mundane West Memphis city council meeting agenda about reaffirming existing city tax rates and accepting grants became a sounding board for city councilors on the police subcommittee to amplify crime concerns. Police Committee chairman Wills Mondy, Councilman James Pulliaum echoed concerns expressed the day before with the police department. But Councilman Wayne Croom’s assessment of crime in the city had coun- cilors reeling in their chairs, rolling eyes and sighing out loud.

Croom called city crime rate “about the worst in the state” and said it was bad enough to stop corporate businesses from wanting to locate in the city. The assessment smacked officials in the face as the groundbreaking for the new West Memphis International River Rail Hub was slated for October 5. The Intermodal industrial park was funded completely by a $10.9 million federal TIGER IV economic recovery fund. The River Rail hub represents the first multi-modal logistics center development in the area since the 1998 Union Pacific Intermodal Facility in Marion. Councilwoman Ramona Taylor pointed to the fact that Dryfus and Cargill granaries had landed next to the river and adjacent to the site for new international river rail hub along with the recent opening of Sediver which manufactures tempered glass high voltage insulators in the city’s Mid-America Industrial

Park.

Nonetheless, Croom cited four key areas prospective businesses consider in site location and said the crime statistics now were a bad harbinger for future growth of major businesses in West Memphis. The councilman maintained that companies look at health care availability, education, fire department and crime. Croom lauded the local education systems and the ISO Class 1 Fire Department rating and pointed to the East Arkansas Family Health Center and construction of the county’s new Baptist Hospital as positives on the corporate selection punch lists before denigrating the crime rate in the city.

“They come in and look at four core issues,” said Croom. “The major issue they look at is the crime incident rate. Ours has to be one of the worst in Arkansas. That’s my personal observation.”

Croom backed that up by posting on his social media a crime ranking later in the day by “roadsnacks.com” that placed West Memphis sixth worst in the state.

Croom shook his head as he recounted recent city crime incidents. Dozens of break-ins in his Ward 3 in the last month, and the houses of innocent citizens being shot up were retold for city councilors to hear.

His first concern on the list was gun play on the street outside the Fred’s store next to the police station.

The hubris of the shooters stunned the councilman.

“Can you imagine doing that next door to the police station?” asked Croom.

Pulliaum echoed his sentiment pushed for neighborhood watches and open communication about crime that he had expressed I the police committee the day before.

“We need to involve the community to fight crime,” said Pulliaum. “We talked about neighborhood watch.”

“I don’t think there’d be any push back from the police department for efforts like that,” replied Mayor Bill Johnson.

Councilman Marco Mc-Clendon brought one point to the attention of Croom, a first-term councilman.

“We’ve been bringing this up for years. This is nothing new,” said McClendon.

“While I do not feel West Memphis is the worst in the state or bad for business, we do need to address the crime.”

Mondy called for a meeting with prosecutor Scott Ellington wanting tougher sentencing and to limit early release and plea deals. “We’ve got to talk to our prosecutors,” said Mondy.

“Chief Oakes sees them arrested and then they plead and are right back out on the streets. A young guy got charged with murder here and went to another county and shot three people in Parkin. We’ve got to talk to our prosecutors, because they are letting them out of

prison.”

By John Rech