VALDOSTA — Federal, state and local government officials met in Valdosta Thursday to discuss a program designed to tackle violent criminal offenders.
Project Safe Neighborhoods started in 2001 and is a project of the U.S. Department of Justice. It is meant to improve neighborhood safety and lower gun violence.
Thursday’s meeting took place in the main courtroom of Lowndes County’s Historic Courthouse.
There were 129 cases handled by the project over the last year in the Valdosta Division of the Middle District of Georgia, said justice department spokeswoman Melissa Hodges. Those resulted in 29 indictments, she said.
“Violence is not going down, it’s getting worse and worse,” said District Attorney Brad Shealy.
FBI agent Rich Bilson said smaller towns are seeing problems with such things as gang violence that are often thought of as big-city woes.
“We may not have the population of Atlanta, but the big-city crimes are starting to seep in,” he said.
To highlight the dangers that violent offenders pose, Valdosta Police Chief Leslie Manahan described a recent encounter between police and a driver they stopped who turned out to have an extensive criminal record and a gun under the seat.
Likewise, Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk mentioned an offender in Ray City who was throwing methamphetamine out of a car’s window as he was being pursued.
U.S. Attorney Peter Leary said Project Safe Neighborhoods “doesn’t cast the widest net; it casts a laser-focused net” on violent suspects.