MEMPHIS, Tenn. — There is no sugar coating it. Memphis continues to be plagued by crimes committed mostly by young people in their teens.
The biggest problem recently has been automobile break-ins – particularly downtown. Last Saturday alone, some 30 car windows were smashed and the vehicles burglarized in one downtown block within a matter of minutes. The victims were both local residents and out of towners. The crimes can have a devastating effect on tourism during the holiday season – and as the annual Liberty Bowl game approaches, that significantly hurts our economy.
But it’s not just downtown. Car break-ins are occurring in shopping centers, apartment parking areas, even church parking lots. And the culprits are getting younger and younger.
As Memphis Tourism president and CEO Kevin Kane told us, the situation is getting out of hand. One carload of young people can easily hit more than two dozen cars in one concentrated area in a matter of minutes and Mayor Jim Strickland told us that Memphis police have arrested almost 1,300 people for car thefts this year. A third of those arrests are kids under 18.
The solutions are not easy. Yes, more police on the streets would help. So would beefed up private security. But I’ll say again, this is more than a police problem. This is a community problem, a family problem, a faith-based problem and it will take all of us to solve it.