LYNCHBURG, Va. – The visit to James Crossing Apartments is the third stop for organizers of the ENOUGH initiative. It's an effort to bring unity and safety in all neighborhoods throughout the Hill City.
James Crossing has been a concern for police in the past. Lynchburg police say the last homicide they had in the area in June 2005.
According to the department, calls for service have gone down in the last three years. In 2015, Lynchburg police received a little over 1,000 calls. In 2016 calls dropped to more than 800 and in 2017 there were about 700 calls. So far this year, police have been called more than 200 times. The calls range from assaults to disorderly calls and subject stops.
And though those numbers sound good to some, council members who represent the neighborhood say, there's still work to be done.
"With the numbers going down, the calls are going down. We're starting to see some of those results. But again we got to look at the bigger picture. We're one community working together. We have to continue to plant those seeds regardless of what we see right now," Sterling Wilder, city councilman for Ward II, said.
The next stop for organizers of the ENOUGH initiative will be next Wednesday at Daniel's Hill Center.