Police chief, mayor and council give notice on derelict vehicles
Franklin Police Chief Morris Beverly announced a new law enforcement program at Franklin’s city council meeting Tuesday.
Beverly said the program will aim at removing “abandoned/junk” vehicles from the city’s right of ways, and will take effect Oct. 1.
“What we’ve come up with is a sticker that the police department will be attaching to vehicles parked on a city right of way,” Beverly said. “The vehicle owner will have 10 days from that point, to move that vehicle. If they don’t move that vehicle after 10 days, we will call a wrecker and it will be at the owner’s expense to retrieve their vehicle.”
Franklin Mayor Eugene Foulcard noted that the abandoned vehicle removal program falls in line with efforts of his administration to beautify the city.
“It’s part of the general clean up that we have been doing throughout Franklin,” Foulcard said. “So, that’s just another phase of what we are attempting to address. We have been doing it in phases.”
Beverly went on to say that the owners of any abandoned vehicles in city right of ways have until Oct. 1 to move their vehicles, after which date, his department will “aggressively” pursue the enforcement of the new program, which will apply not only to abandoned vehicles but to large kitchen appliances and various other abandoned machines as well.
The chief’s August report following the abandoned vehicle program announcement consisted of 33 misdemeanor arrests, nine felony arrests, four DWI arrests, seven marijuana arrests, four burglaries, 21 traffic accidents, 31 moving violations issued with radar, and four hours of assistance from reserve officers.
Beverly said he attributes August’s notable drop in crime to ample cooperation between Franklinites and the police department.
“We (the police department) have had a lot of outreach from the citizens,” he stated. “So, we give them as much kudos as we give ourselves.”
In specific, Beverly exampled the recent homicide of Chiquita Lumpkin and the assistance citizens provided “working that crime scene and giving us information to help us make an arrest.”