Macon-Bibb County Sheriff's Office launches new PRIDE initiative

A new initiative launched by the Macon-Bibb County Sheriff's Office on Friday aims to spark a conversation about positive change in the community through a concept focused on the acronym PRIDE.

"We've seen the hopelessness of forgotten communities, we've heard the despair from the good people who want to make a difference, we've partnered as much as we can as a sheriff's office," Sheriff David Davis said in a morning news conference. "But we need more. We need to have pride in the community."

PRIDE is an acronym for presence, reaction, interaction, deterrence and excellence. The face of the initiative's name is Leo, a stern-looking cartoon lion sporting a sheriff's office patch on his shoulder.

"We can use PRIDE for any of our ills in our community and we can bring PRIDE to all of our neighborhoods in our community," Davis said.

The initiative has been in the works since last year when Davis said he challenged his staff to come up with something to address "the things that have happened in our community, the homicides, any of the crimes that we've had."

PRIDE will be the template for the way all sheriff's office employees handle situations, Davis said. For presence, the sheriff's special response team will be catering to specific needs of neighborhoods, whether it's litter, gangs, drugs or blight. For reaction, the team will assist patrol or investigators. For interaction, deputies are being encouraged to talk to residents and make sure their concerns are being addressed. Deterrence will be achieved through increased presence, and excellence is the end goal.

"We're doing a lot of these things already. ... But we wanted to coalesce this into an initiative to go forward to show what we're doing," Davis said. "This is larger than the sheriff's office. ... We're here to strike the spark, and we are here to help anybody who wants to bring pride to our community."

Warren Selby, chairman of Macon Regional Crimestoppers, said similar efforts have been made in the past in a collaboration of Crimestoppers, the Macon Police Department and various other groups. However, the fragmented parties didn't allow for cohesiveness, he said.

"When something happens in the community, there will be a lot of initiatives that spark. You'll see a lot of sparks," Selby said. "But the fire never really burns. ... I think it takes an organization like the sheriff's department ... to bring all those groups together to make that spark a fire that will actually spread across the community."

Residents with non-emergency concerns or issues needing attention are asked to call Deputy Linda Howard.

"No matter what the problem is, if it's something from overgrown grass on a lot ... I'll take their number and information and I'll call over to the jail and let them know. Then we can get some inmates out there and clean that property," Howard said. "(The initiative) is just to get the community to work together and work along with the sheriff's department also."

To contact writer Laura Corley, call 744-4334 or follow her on Twitter@Lauraecor.

This story was originally published January 8, 2016 at 10:02 PM with the headline "Macon-Bibb County Sheriff's Office launches new PRIDE initiative ."