Human trafficking, speeding among topics at HPCAC forum
The Huntsville Police Department reported last month that there has been a decline in city crime rates over the past five years despite extensive population growth.
The drop in violent offenses such as murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault grabbed the most attention. But the rate of other criminal activity is also dropping, at least according to statistics compiled by the HPD in the South Precinct.
Tuesday night at St. Thomas Episcopal Church on Bailey Cove Road, the Huntsville Police Citizens Advisory Committee gathered along with HPD officers and area residents in a forum to discuss the current climate of community policing.
HPD displayed data on crimes covering robbery, burglary, auto breaking and entering and aggravated assault. Added together, the recorded number of incidents fell when comparing the fourth quarter of 2023 to the same time period in 2024.
“The reason it’s for a quarter of last year, it takes a long time to get all that stuff,’’ Michael Tucker, a community relations officer at the South Precinct, told the audience. “The stuff that we can release takes a while to get, and it’s a lot of numbers.’’
Drug crackdown is nothing new, but a recent concern that has created headlines nationwide is human trafficking. HPD has taken notice and is working to catch individuals involved in that crime, which sees a high rate of crimes involving minors. While officers operate off tips and activity to catch drug offenders, they comb social media to find trafficking offenders.
“We’ve shut down some hotels (because of drug activity),’’ Tucker said. “One in particular, we got it remodeled and renamed. The following year, last year, we mainly went (after) gambling and did a really amazing job. We’re still working on some of that stuff this year. One of our main goals, human trafficking, we made 10 arrests back to the first of this year and put 10, 11 people in jail. Over 40 felony charges on those guys.’’
The department wouldn’t divulge other means of catching sexual predators, but Tucker added that during a dragnet he took on the social media persona of a 15-year old girl.
“I probably texted more that night than I had my entire life,’’ he said. “Sent 200 people text messages and I was cross-eyed by the end of the night. I actually was like, ‘OK, I gotta sit down for a little while.’ ’’
Speeding is a concern among the citizens attending the forum. Officers asserted that slowing the ever-increasing numbers of cars crowding Huntsville streets is a priority.
“We actually pulled over more cars than state patrol (last year),’’ Tucker said. “Captain Riley probably pulled over more cars since he’s been a captain down south than he probably did in his whole career.’’
Tucker’s community relations partner, Brittney Williams who was a “lateral’’ hire from Tupelo, Miss., said the precinct’s “most popular complaint’’ is speeding, particularly in the Hampton Cove area.
“So what we do with those complaints, we typically start with a frequent patrol request and we send out (precinct wide) the particular times it’s happening more and it’s usually for certain shifts,’’ Williams said. “Like if it’s between school hours in the afternoon between 2 and 3 we would send that out to second shift South so they can provide extra patrol there.’’
Dr. Jennie Robinson, Huntsville City Council District 3 representative, gave HPD South recognition for their efforts in covering approximately 71.3 miles with limited officers. That area goes from the Morgan County line across the Tennessee River north to Oakwood Avenue, over Monte Sano Mountain on U.S. 431 past Hampton Cove and back to Redstone Arsenal and Leeman Ferry Rd.
All Huntsville precincts – North, South and West – have to work wrecks among their duties and that takes away from patrolling. According to Robinson, the HPD is short-staffed but not because of budget restraints.
“It’s a recruiting issue,’’ she said. “There is money in the budget to hire officers. Our problem is the general disrespect for officers means people don’t want to serve as officers. So it’s hard to hire good people like Brittany. That’s the problem – recruiting, getting enough officers to fill those spots so that we can have the kind of coverage we need.’’
For information about joining the HPD, visit Join HPD – Official Recruitment Site of the Huntsville Police Department.
