Mayor Andrew Ginther: Columbus will 'spend whatever it takes' to make city safe from crime

Mayor Andrew J. Ginther said Thursday that Columbus has made "tremendous progress" in battling crime and violence, but also acknowledged that Ohio's capital city is not the safest big city in America. 

"We want to be the safest big city in America.  We're not today," Ginther said of the nation's 14th-largest.

While reiterating public safety improvements the city has made, and emphasizing again investments in summer programming intended to offer youths a way to have fun and stay out of trouble, Ginther also said there's no price the city won't pay to ensure the safety of residents. 

"We’re going to spend whatever it takes to make our city safe," he said. 

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Public safety expenses already comprise more than 60%, or more than $660 million, of the city's $1 billion budget for 2022.

City Council member Emmanuel Remy, who chairs the council's Public Safety Committee, reiterated Ginther's statement.

"There is no price you can put on the feeling of safety within our community, and we will do what it takes to make sure everyone feels safe in the city of Columbus," he said.

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Ginther made the comments at a news conference promoting the city's $16 million investment in youth programming, an agreement with the police union to pay officers double-time for weekend shifts during the summer, and the installation of temporary light and camera towers to be placed in 22 city parks in the wake of four recent shootings in four different parks — three of them fatal.

Ginther and police Chief Elaine Bryant pointed out the city has seen some improvements in the battle against crime and violence, including 150 fewer felonious assaults year to date than at the same time in 2021 and the seizure of more than 1,100 illegal weapons by police so far in 2022. 

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The 2022 homicide total, which stood at 49 as of noon on Thursday, is significantly down from the same point in 2021, when the city had 84 homicides at the same point.

Columbus set a new record for the deadliest year on record in 2021 with 205 homicides, surpassing the previous record of 175 set just the year before.  

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However, the city had recorded 40 homicides as of May 26, 2020, but began experiencing a spike in violence through the summer months that continued through the end of the year and led to a then-record 175 homicides.

To date, Columbus police have identified a suspect or made an arrest in 26 of the 49 homicides in 2022, or 53%, Bryant said. The division cites its overall closure rate at 77% because it includes arrests or suspects identified in cases from previous years in the closure rate for 2022. 

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Bryant said the division's Safe Streets program, which utilizes officers on bicycles, will begin on Sunday. The camera and light towers will begin arriving in mid-June and will be deployed at 22 of the city's nearly 400 parks, with evaluation and relocation based on data and community concerns.

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Bryant and Ginther said plans are also in the works to revitalize the city's reserve police unit, which was disbanded in 2017 under former Chief Kim Jacobs due to concerns over costs of training those officers. 

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"We will not rest until we’re the safest big city in the country," Ginther said. "We're seeing tremendous progress. We know that less than 500 people in a city of 900,000 are responsible for 50% of the violence in homicides. What the chief and her team are doing are identifying those folks, getting them off the street, holding them accountable and making all of us safer."  

Ginther also echoed calls he has made in the past for more action at the state and federal levels on gun control in the wake of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday. 

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"We as a community, as a nation, need to come to grips with this devastating gun problem. We need the federal government to step up," Ginther said. "We need the state government, if they don’t have the courage to ban assault weapons, pass red flag laws and implement universal background checks, to step aside and let us lead. It's a dangerous job for our officers, but to have stand your ground and permitless carry become the law in this state, devastating."

bbruner@dispatch.com

@bethany_bruner