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Crime--both the perception and the reality of it - touches on every aspect of life in Birmingham. Beyond the immediate impact on the lives of both victims and perpetrators, crime affects both the self-image of the community and the image that Birmingham presents to the rest of the world. In a very real sense, crime is the ultimate 'quality of life' issue.
Doing everything possible to help the citizens of Birmingham feel safe in their own homes and neighborhoods is a moral obligation of city government. If the crime rate is high, people have the right to expect decisive action - and if the public perceives that no one at City Hall has a strategy for attacking crime at its source, confidence is undermined in city government as a whole. As Mayor of Birmingham, getting the crime rate under control and keeping it there will be my top priority.
How will we accomplish that? We'll do it by setting measurable crime reduction goals for the Police Department. We'll do it by working with the City Council to provide our police officers with all of the tools necessary to fight crime effectively. And we'll do it by making the Police Department and the Mayor's Office accountable to the public for meeting the goals I set as Mayor.
We can and will make Birmingham a safer place.
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