Police chief addresses crime after another deadly weekend in Mobile
By ARIEL MALLORY
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MOBILE, Alabama (WALA) — Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine addressed the recent surge in violence in Mobile.
Six people were shot over the weekend, including a mother driving on I-10 with her young son.
The chief is hoping with the addition of new officers it will help combat these violent crimes.
Chief Prine announced that 16 new officers will be sworn in on Tuesday.
Just last month they graduated 12 new officers.
Prine says this comes right on time because those officers are needed.
“I want the public to know that the first precinct will be fully staffed the first time in many many years,” Chief Prine said. “They can rest assured that they are going to see our officers out in full force enforcing the law and protecting them.”
According to Chief Prine crime in the Port City is up 20% compared to this time last year.
And he’s not the only one noticing that surge in violence.
“Mobile is crazy, that’s what I got to say,” one Mobile resident said. “Everybody hate each other for some reason. You got something going with your life or whatever and you doing something right it seem like that’s what piss people off.”
While the chief says they’re doing everything they can to address the violence, some issues are out of their hands.
“There’s another faction to this that has to be taken into account is getting the court systems opened up and we have got to get trials back on the docket,” the chief explained. “And we have got to get these repeat offenders who are out on bond committing new crimes locked back up and that is really outside of the police department.”
Over the weekend six people were shot and MPD also investigated several “shots fired” calls, including inside apartment complexes.
Chief Prine says in order to keep these neighborhoods safe there needs to be more community engagement.
“Before COVID we had a great community action program and we had not just residential community programs that were in play but also commercial action groups that were assisting,” Prine said.
According to Chief Prine he says we are now at 47 homicides this year, which is on pace to be one of the deadliest years ever.
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