News Conference Story
Mayor Kelly Girtz discusses public safety with University of Georgia students
Madison Balk
Mayor Kelly Girtz holds a press conference at Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia on Sept. 23 regarding public safety. Girtz addressed issues and solutions related to homelessness, employment, gun safety, roadways and more in the Athens-Clarke County area. (Photo Courtesy // Natalie Smith)
Athens-Clarke County Mayor Kelly Girtz discussed the correlation between accessible outreach programs and decreased crime rates in a news conference regarding public safety on Sept. 23 at Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.
Girtz explained that knowledge about behavioral health and the implementation of outreach programs is necessary to the community’s safety. “There's research identification that these are the kinds of things that mean that people live safer lives,” he said.
Girtz discussed evidence from a study by Princeton University sociologist Patrick Sharkey. Sharkey’s work shows that in a community of 100,000 people, each new outreach nonprofit led to a 1% reduction in crime.
“These partnerships are part of the reason that you saw this reduction in shootings here this summer of 2022,” Girtz said. The Athens-Clarke County Transparency Hub shows crime rates in all areas have significantly decreased over the last five years.
Mayor Girtz shares a chart of index crimes in Athens-Clarke County from 1995-2020, showing that the total number of crimes in the list areas has decreased by about 4000 in the last 25 years. (Photo Courtesy//Natalie Smith)
Girtz referred to two examples of outreach programs in a radio interview with UGA’s “WUGA” radio show in October of 2021 titled, “Athens News Matters: ACC Mayor Kelly Girtz Provides Updates on Recent Government Action,”. This “solution-oriented approach” includes co-responder teams of clinicians and police officers for nonviolent matters and a crisis response unit.
These programs coincide with behavioral health education. Girtz said the police force is much more trained in behavioral health support after completing,” dozens more hours of training than required by the state.
“What I can say is that we really have broadened the amount of work we do on the street and safety around,” Girtz said.
Why I Wrote the Story
This news conference covered a wide range of topics that couldn’t all be written about for this story. Writing this story taught me how to take a great amount of information and pick out parts of it to focus on to write about.