I’m pleased to see that the Metro Nashville Police Department has arrested the primary suspect in the two murders committed at Bellacino’s in West Meade Friday night. This is a brutal, horrible act, and I hope justice will be served.*

Note the comments thread that is developing in response to the Tennessean’s breaking news item. I don’t want to include the full text of the hateful and shameful remarks that are being posted, but I have included a screen capture (above; click to see full size). Anonymity doesn’t make joking about an incident where two people lost their lives any less despicable.

*I oppose the death penalty for philosophical reasons, but if convicted, I do hope that the suspect serves a full life sentence for this crime.

Councilman Eric Crafton declared at last night’s public safety forum that he wants to add more officers to help the police department fight crime. He went on to ask Commander Mickey Miller how many more officers he needed.

Miller replied, “I’ll take every officer you give me.” When pressed by Crafton to be specific and asked whether the need was more like five or fifty additional officers for the West Precinct, Miller said that he could use 20 more officers and that the precinct was “about 20 short” from its total staff in 2005. He went on to say, “If we had triple the officers we do now, we could cover all of the hot spots at one time.”

WSMV-TV’s Larry Brinton and others have reported on Nashville’s high resident-to-officer ratio, which compares poorly with other cities in the state and around the nation:

“As of Jan. 19, Metro police has 1, 220 sworn officers, even though it’s authorized to have 1,311. If the very latest census of 609,000 residents in Nashville is correct, that’s one Metro officer for every 500 citizens. That’s a little bit unusual since seven years ago it was an officer for every 456 people. The city had more officers at the time but with a smaller population. There are some satellite police departments in the county, but the Metro Police Department covers all of Davidson County. Compared to Tennessee’s [other large] cities, Nashville’s police force needs more officers. There are four recruit classes scheduled this year. Memphis has a city police officer for every 341 people. Knoxville has one for every 433 people and Chattanooga has an officer for every 360 residents. Baltimore has an officer for every 214 citizens. St. Louis has one for 234 people, and Cleveland has an officer for every 262 residents.”

Crime is historically low in Nashville, according to recent reports, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. Imagine how the situation might get even better if there were more officers on duty.

Another point of discussion at last night’s public safety meeting was how a $250,000 grant that the Metro Council will soon allocate to the police department for increased enforcement will be used. Several residents in attendance argued that local residents had approached the council to have this money granted in order to address recurring drug-related crime in the neighborhood near 28th Avenue and Clifton Avenue in West Nashville. These residents expressed frustration that the problems plaguing this neighborhood are longstanding and that despite hard work by the police to address the activity, nothing seems to be changing.

Councilwoman Ginger Hausser sympathized with this frustration but noted that the council had decided to host the public safety forum and three similar meetings across the city in order to hear from constituents about how the grant should be spent. “These problems didn’t start overnight,” she said. “and they won’t be solved overnight, either, but this is a start.”

Councilman Eric Crafton observed that criminal behavior by repeat offenders is not confined to West Nashville. He noted that he frequently visits East Nashville on business and sees similar patterns. “I’d like to see criminal penalties increased because, 24 hours later, I see these same guys right back on the street doing the same stuff,” he said.

A quick-witted audience member chimed in, “Well then, Eric, stop doing deals with them!”

To his credit, Crafton shrugged the comment off by laughing and replying, “Good idea.”

Regarding the 28th and Clifton area, which was mentioned repeatedly during the meeting, Commander Mickey Miller replied, “One thing that will help is for neighbors to start using their neighborhoods again and reporting crime when they see it. [With limited police resources,] the squeaky wheel gets all the oil.” He also noted that this area is one of many “hot spots” in West Nashville that police officers regularly target for enforcement. Those in attendance applauded the police and their efforts at the end of the meeting and complimented on their hard work to make the city a safer place to live.

Along with several members of the Metro Council, Commander Mickey Miller and Sergeant Connie Tripp hosted a community forum on public safety last night at the West Precinct headquarters on Charlotte Pike. Council members Ginger Hausser, Eric Crafton, Jim Schulman, Billy Joe Walls and Carolyn Baldwin Tucker attended the meeting along with 20 to 25 local residents.

Juvenile crime was a major topic of discussion throughout the evening. As mayoral candidate David Briley observed back in February, approximately 10,000 young adults ages 16 to 24 are responsible for 80 percent of the crime in Nashville. Miller, Tripp and others reiterated the point repeatedly yesterday evening that recidivism rates are very high and that a small percentage of local residents, many of them juveniles, are responsible for the large majority of criminal behavior in the area. Miller remarked that many drug dealers have resorted to having juveniles conduct their drug transactions because the dealers know that juveniles are less likely to be held in jail prior to convinction and likely to be released upon serving short sentences. Youth and adults alike who perpetrate crimes are frequently released from jail only to return to criminal activity within days if not hours, according to Miller and several others in attendance.

Councilman Crafton argued for increased penalties for crime, especially for repeat offenders, and asked why parents are not legally held responsible for  paying restitution or other expenses for the juveniles in their care. When it was pointed out that many parents of juvenile offenders have lost control of the adolescents in their care, Crafton replied, “If they start having to pay up, they’ll get control back.” He went on to say adamantly that increasing penalties and parental liability were high priorities for him, noting that he “would start working on that Monday.”

Councilwoman Tucker concurred that tougher sanctions were a good idea. “Offenders need to know: You do the crime, you do the time,” she said.

Sylvan Park Neighborhood Watch Captain Doug Eckert wondered whether increased penalties would ultimately result in long-term change. “What turns someone around is having someone care about them and giving them control over something positive in their lives,” he said, indicating that encouraging responsible adults to build relationships with troubled teenagers may help reduce overall crime and recidivism.

Already fired up about stiffening penalties, Crafton quickly replied, “With all due respect, these parents need to grab their kids by the neck and make them start paying attention!” He went on to point out that when he misbehaved as a child, his father responded with discipline, specifically “taking off his belt,” and that discipline is what made Crafton stay in line as a young adult.

Crafton clearly makes a fair point that parental involvement and discipline are essential in the development of responsible adults. I don’t necessarily object to increasing penalties for offenders and to making parents more responsible for crimes committed by juveniles in their care, but I agree with Eckert that more needs to be done than just piling on punishment. In my opinion, Crafton’s example of his own childhood doesn’t address the fact that many juvenile offenders have not had the same level of parental involvement in their lives. For those that have had strong parents in their lives, some of those parents have focused solely on harsh discipline and not on building and maintaining close relationships with their children, the kind of relationships that give young people incentive to care about and participate positively in their families and their communities.

Is it a terrible thing that some parents do not take appropriate responsibility for preparing their children to be contributing members of society? Yes. Will increasing penalties and parental legal responsibility alone help those children head back in the right direction for their lives? In my opinion, no.