City Considers Contingent to Learn How to Reduce Murders

Sarasota Police Chief Mikel Hollaway doesn’t want to talk to a consultant to figure out how to stop Newtown’s violence.

“After 30 years of this, I’m not impressed by consultants,” Hollaway told the Sarasota City Commission Tuesday night. “I don’t really want to talk to David Kennedy.”

Kennedy is the man who Commissioner Willie Charles Shaw says is one of the main components in helping develop a permanent solution to Sarasota’s crime and homicides. , all in Newtown, but the crime spills out throughout the region and four additional homicides in 2011, one of which a murder-suicide, took place in unincorporated Sarasota. One additional murder in Sarasota city limits was considered self-defense.

Shaw is organizing a “shopping list” of people he wants to talk to and get involved after the city saw Kennedy as instrumental after reading a case study on High Point, N.C., which has a similar population and size of its police department.

Kennedy’s work involves working with officers to focus on a community-approached policing and non-profits, churches, schools and government agencies to change the culture.

Those latter parts are what Hollaway is after.

“What we’re really, really interested in hearing and seeing is talking to those community leaders to see how they got their community to stand up and say enough is enough,” Hollaway said.

The commission agreed Tuesday night to have a budget prepared to fund sending a contingent of law enforcement and community leaders to High Point, N.C., where frank discussions about what works and what doesn’t work can take place. 

Shaw’s shopping list to advance discussions in Sarasota includes, the , , federal police, education, mental health services, the courts, public defenders, the media and his FOCUS group — the Ministerial Alliance. Shaw is also a pastor.

“We need an outside, unbias processor to do what we need to be done,” Shaw said. Shaw had .

Hollaway highlighted his department’s efforts in December where he directed more officers and surveillance in Newtown and led to gun arrests and the prevention of another potential shooting. 

“Those people who continue to do this would be in for a very rude awakening, very shortly,” he said.

Shaw also focused in on the media being important in the city’s turnaround. 

He says some media outlets —  both in Sarasota and in Tampa Bay — will report just the crime and not on renewal efforts or the positive aspects of communities that have historically struggled, or what the community is doing to get rid of crime. 

“We don’t need someone to tell the pilot the plane is falling,” he said.