Chatham area police chiefs address gun violence, financial scams, immigration

Overall crime in Savannah is down but incidents of domestic violence are up. Theft of guns from unlocked vehicles is down but persists. And if requested, county police will assist federal immigration agents in cases of “violent criminal things” but will not “knock on doors” to determine someone’s immigration status.

Those are just a few of the points made by three local police chiefs — Lenny Gunther of the Savannah Police Department, Jeff Hadley of the Chatham County Police Department, and Terry Enoch of the Savannah-Chatham County public schools’ police force — at a briefing sponsored by the Savannah chapter of the NAACP on Sunday.

So far this year homicides, sexual assaults, assaults with guns, and property crimes are down 9% compared to the same period last year, Gunther told more than a hundred people, including a dozen local officials, gathered at Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church.

What has fueled a 2% rise in the category of violent crime is domestic violence, with 61% of those incidents involving strangulation, not guns, he said.

Savannah’s police chief deplored the persistence of gun violence, in particular the four shooting deaths of juveniles that are among the 20 homicides reported in Savannah this year. “This is too much,” he said. “They resonate with everyone I know, definitely for me.”

The solution to gun-related violence among youth must occur across a broad front of agencies, schools, and community groups, Gunther said.

“We understand that we can’t arrest our way out of issues in our community. I can arrest 100 people today, and we’ll still be talking about the same things tomorrow, so obviously we have to enforce the law. But it’s not the overall answer,” he said. “Obviously, we want to fight crime, but I think it’s more about transforming lives than fighting crime.”

‘Some progress’

So far this year, there have been 108 guns stolen from vehicles in Savannah’s streets — 76 from unlocked vehicles and 32 from locked vehicles. This is a 47% decrease from last year over the same period, during which 178 guns were stolen from locked vehicles, 23 from locked vehicles.

“We’re making some progress with guns being stolen from vehicles, but until that number is zero, we have a long way to go,” Gunther said.

In April 2024, the Savannah City Council passed an ordinance requiring firearms in unattended vehicles to be securely stored in a locked compartment and that the vehicle itself be locked. The law comes with maximum penalties of a $1,000 fine and 30 days in jail.

Led by attorney general and Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Carr earlier this month joined a lawsuit against Savannah Mayor Van Johnson and council members, demanding that they rescind the ordinance, which he described as “a misguided attempt to punish law-abiding Georgians” that “does absolutely nothing to address crime.”

‘Protect yourself’

In his remarks, Hadley, chief of the county’s police department, singled out the growing prevalence of financial scams in the area, especially those targeting the elderly. He cited the recent case of a 99-year-old county resident who was cheated out of more than a half-million dollars before the perpetrator was arrested.

“Please protect yourself,” implored Hadley, warning county residents against giving money over the phone, sending money over a cash app, buying gift cards at the request of phone call or text message from someone claiming to represent the sheriff’s office or the post office. Local law enforcement, he said, is preparing a public campaign to alert residents to the scourge.

‘Not knocking on doors’

Later, in an interview with The Current, Hadley confirmed a news report that county police officers joined Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in carrying out two operations on June 11, including one involving a person who had a deportation warrant.

• State troops to assist ICE with immigration enforcement tasks

“We were together for probably less than two hours, and that was the beginning and the end of it. We haven’t done anything since,” he said.

Hadley said that those taken into custody during the joint operations were not detained or processed in county police facilities. But, he said, he did not know where they were transferred.

He went on to say that county police have “no specific written policy on cooperation with ICE and Border Patrol agents.”

If requested, they would, he said, assist the agents in cases of “violent criminal things,” but “what we’re not going to do is go out and look for or check peoples’ immigration status.

“We’re not knocking on doors, ‘Let me see your papers,’ things of that nature.”

State Rep. Anne Allen Westbrook on Monday condemned the joint operations, saying, “Chatham County residents should be able to trust that their police department is focused on keeping our communities safe.”

“There are better uses for our public safety tax dollars than helping federal ICE agents carry out the whims of President Trump’s authoritarian agenda,” she said.