Statement From Dothan District 4 Commissioner Dave Stock About Recent Shootings
The shooting/gun battle on July 3rd at the Wiregrass commons mall, the shooting hours later on July 4th off Hutchins, the shooting early morning on July 5th off Fortner, and the numerous other shootings that have occurred in the past months and years continues to tarnish the image of our city.
Dothan police, Houston County Sherrifs Office, and Dothan fire and our EMS partners do a great job responding to incidents, securing the scenes and saving lives, and investigating the crimes. They are very proactive and do a lot behind the scenes to include investigating leads everyday, but I think it may be time that we ask ourselves if we need help.
1. I think we need to consider if a formal violent crimes task force, made up of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies is needed to increase our manpower and put more law enforcement professionals on our streets so we can find criminals before they commit their next acts of violence. Most murder or attempted murder perpetrators aren’t first-time offenders.
Again, the Dothan Police and Houston County Sherrif are doing a great job and asking for help isn’t a dig on them. We need full community support for our law enforcement officers and operations, to include the Wiregrass Aviation Support Program, and we need more law enforcement and crime prevention programs until we can get this under control.
2. We need a community crime prevention forum that brings together our elected officials, law enforcement agencies, community advocates, and residents to collaborate on ways to reduce our crime. This should be held on a regular basis for the long term.
3. There are a lot of bad people with bad intentions carrying guns all over this city and state. We need to consider what if any law changes would help police, provide a deterrent to gun violence, and provide harsh penalties for those who use guns during a crime. The recent passage of the Alabama constitutional carry law allows anlmost anyone to carry a gun without a permit. Many law enforcement agencies were against that law because the old permit system helped to expose criminals with illegal weapons (criminals didn’t apply for permits). I’m a huge supporter and defender of our second amendment rights, I beared arms in support of our country for over 23 years, and I don’t want to restrict any rights of my fellow law abiding citizens. Florida has very strict laws and mandatory sentencing when guns are used or even present during a crime. I understand these things would require legislative actions and that’s why we need to get our entire team of elected officials involved with this crime forum.
4. Parents need to be held accountable for their children, to include where they are and when, and what they’re doing so we may need to start strictly enforcing a curfew for minors. Parenting isn’t easy and I support our parents, grandparents, and other legal guardians who are responsible for these children, but if the kids can’t be controlled then we need to step in and get those kids in youth discipline camps, counseling, or other homes. There are too many teens being charged as adults for very serious crimes (and they should be charged that way), so parents need to be put on notice and held accountable for their actions. Recent reports state a grandma gave her car keys to a 14 year old which resulted in racing other cars through downtown with kids hanging out the windows before wrecking and injuring people. Grandma was charged and that’s a good thing. If you enable this stuff you should feel the consequences.
5. I do believe we are witnessing a breakdown of our society in real time, mainly due to a breakdown of families and the values we once held near. We need to reinforce the importance of family, hard work, and jobs and provide more job training opportunities. I’m all for helping people who want to help themselves, but generational poverty that is perpetuated by a system that doesn’t demand more is clearly not helping. This problem is affecting our schools, our communities, and our future. We need God, we need tight-nit families and communities, strong work ethics, and we need the rule of law reinforced in every household.
6. People need to be accountable for those who live with them. If someone in your residence commits a crime and you don’t report them, or you protect or harbor them, you should be investigated and face real consequences like evictions and possibly jail time. Covering for criminals or enabling them is almost as bad as committing the crimes and people need to understand that they’re hurting their community. Our community leaders, advocates, supporters, and residents need to all work together to help our law enforcement by telling them, confidentially if needed, who the trouble makers are so we can get them out of our neighborhoods.
I think most people agree that it’s gotten a lot worse over the past few years and it’s time to take a robust and comprehensive approach to reducing violence in Dothan. These comments and ideas are to start the conversation. I’m open to other ideas and suggestions, but we need to start somewhere and we need to start now. The status quo and political statements without REAL solutions has not made our community safer. I’m embarrassed and upset that our city is struggling with this, and I know many of our residents are also embarrassed and upset.
I’m very grateful that innocent bystanders were not hit by stray bullets at the mall Friday, but I’m afraid we may not be that lucky forever and I don’t want to wait and wish we would have done more sooner. The police can’t be in every situation where a person pulls out a gun and starts shooting, so we need to use all tools, methods, and deterrents at our disposal before it’s too late. We live in a great city that I am many others love…Hope is not lost but the time to act is now. Thank you for your attention and support!
