ABBEVILLE, Ala. (WDHN) — A member of the Girard community was struck by tragedy as a police chase led a car running into his home.
An arrest was made in the chase, but it has sparked the neighborhood wanting something to be done with the amount of reckless driving in the area.
“One of the community needs over here is to decrease the crime rate,” Former Abbeville councilwoman, Dorothy Baker said. “There is a high density of crime in this community and one of the criminal activities that were going on was unsafe driving.”
The city of Abbeville has added speed bumps in the area. According to Police Chief Eric Blankenship, the city council is looking to add even more precautions.
Currently, around the Girard community in Abbeville, the speed limit is 25 miles per hour. However, Baker says people speed often and it can cause problems for a community that has an older population
“This is a danger to us, with the speeding and the unsafe driving in a residential neighborhood,” Baker said.
The Abbeville Police Department has taken complaints from neighbors and from they have increased amount of patrols in the area
“Since we received those complaints,” Abbeville Police Chief, Eric Blankenship said. “We have stepped up the patrol in that area.”
Baker went before the council on several occasions to bring them the idea of possibly installing security cameras in the Girard community.
According to Abbeville city officials, the city cannot put cameras on private property, but at this time the city is looking into potential ways to up security in the area.
“Looking at you know some kind of different security cameras and so forth in the area,” Chief Blankenship said. “Kind of weighing the pros and cons and the different systems.”
“So if somebody come through here, you gotta picture of the person and the tag number,” Baker said.
Chief Blankenship adds that their goal as a police department is to be proactive and take action when needed, to ensure the safety of the city.
The decision to purchase and install security cameras was last discussed three months ago and Baker says she will get members of the Girard community together to raise money for those cameras if need be and that’s the only way.