FOX13 sits down with new Public Safety Advisor for Memphis
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Little by little, the new public safety advisory for the City of Memphis said the city is looking to string along days and nights with no reported gun violence.
“This morning, I woke up. First thing I did was grab my phone and start looking for those reports—zero reports. No homicides, no murders, no shootings where anyone was shot at that was reported. That’s progress. That’s tangible progress,” said City of Memphis Public Safety Advisor Darren Goods.
Goods is a former Memphis Police officer. He also worked for Tennessee’s Department of Children Services. But he said, in this new role, he’s looking to increase community involvement and curb crime.
“Mayor Young has charged me with being the lead for his violence reduction initiative,” Goods said.
Fighting crime, especially juvenile crime, is familiar to Goods. He spent more than 30 years with the Memphis Police Department and moved up the ranks to supervisor. He then worked for the State of Tennessee as the Deputy Commissioner of Juvenile Justice.
“A lot of young people are exposed to a tremendous amount of trauma at such an early age. And when they are surrounded and they’re surrounded by adults that are making bad decisions, that becomes the normal,” Goods said.
Now the city’s public safety advisor, Goods hopes to use experience from all of the positions he’s held throughout his career to make recommendations to Mayor Young and the Memphis Police Department to improve the crime initiatives and operations in place. He noted Operation Code Zero, where more than 120 people were recently arrested.
“Very impactful. They’re doing some really good things, making some really good quality arrests. One of the things that I’m going to do to help support that is, how do we bring the community piece into that? How do we bring, you know, the CBOs, community-based organizations, how do we bring the philanthropic community into that to support Code Zero?” Goods said.
In his first interview with FOX13, he acknowledged some of the challenges that come with his new role, like a declining number of police officers with MPD and the perception of crime.
“The more officers you have on the street, the more proactive you can be. The less officers you have, the opposite…Memphis, we didn’t get into this situation overnight. We’re not going to get out of the situation overnight,” Goods said.
Goods added that, with summer here, the city hopes to get more volunteers at the local community centers to allow for more activities for the attending children.