Security near rec debated

Alfreida Edwards, on behalf of the Broussard-Harris Line Dance Group, appealed to the Franklin City Council, law enforcement community, and the public at large Tuesday to take action against the rash of burglaries that have destabilized the security of public property of late, at the Broussard-Harris Recreation Center.
According to Edwards, a fellow step group member while at rehearsal had her car burglarized Monday evening, as it sat parked in the lot of the recreation center.
The parking lot has been the staging area for a string of such burglaries, and was the focal point of a self-described “emotional” address at last month’s city council meeting by Mayor Pro Tempore Lester Levine, in which he recounted a similar incident occurring to someone with whom he had attended an event at the recreation center.
Following Edwards’ call to action, Franklin Police Chief Sabria McGuire said, “I don’t want to make excuses. But, for the last six months to a year, you’ve been hearing about the Judicial Reform Act (Louisiana Justice Reinvestment Reform Act).
“So, the state has used the Reform Act to release inmates out into the community without having any type of plan of giving job training, substance abuse help or housing.
“We have a young man that was released in November, homeless, and he’s back incarcerated for doing burglaries. He was only out for five weeks. The address that he gave to the parole board didn’t even exist. And, the parole board is taxed because they already had more people (to parole) than they had parole officers.”
McGuire went on to say that she had addressed such concerns to Representative Sam Jones on several occasions. However, McGuire said she was informed that burglary is a non-violent offense, and therefore falls under the umbrella of qualifications for release through the LJRRA.
“So, that’s what we’re dealing with,” McGuire said. “We have made many arrests. Also, we are dealing with the same thing that no one wants to say anything. We are a small community. I can tell you that I have a good idea who is doing the burglaries at Broussard-Harris. But again, we can’t be everywhere. Also, people have to call us.”
McGuire pointed back to the “If you see something, say something,” slogan of community vigilance employed in previous appeals to the public, from the podium in City Hall.
It was tacitly agreed by the council and the gallery, signified by ascents of nods, that the community must take a role in the policing of the recreation center parking lot, and its safety as a whole, and that that role begins with saying something once something is seen.
Mayor Raymond Harris interjected that in his estimation the problem lay in that the perpetrators of the crimes seem to be paying more attention to the community than the community is paying to them; a sentiment which indicts more so the community affected than the community in total, but appropriately, if responsibility is evidenced by the crimes.
“We need the public, said McGuire.
“In Pecan Acres, we had a group get together. They called, they had two-way radios and they were talking to each other. So, when the police came, they could say (to us), ‘The guy’s hiding out in this yard,’ and we caught that person.”
Levine added, “You know, when someone comes in and takes my stuff or violates me—that frustrates me. And, what hurts so badly, is that then you walk outside and you see a guy sitting there. That makes me think you had something to do with it because you won’t say something.”