Birmingham Mayor William Bell announces Operation Eagle
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Finding news to report on in Birmingham can be depressing work. I generally sort news articles by “most recent” to find a lead and work from there, but that means I have to wade through dozens of reports of people’s ruined lives.
Some of it, like car crashes or branches falling on a house, are just rotten luck. But every day, I see more reports of people shot or stabbed. That’s why I have a great deal of hope for our community in Mayor Bell’s resurrection of Operation Eagle.
Operation Eagle is a summertime police operation aimed at preventing crimes through increasing police presence. First introduced in 2014, the program increases law enforcement presence in previously identified high-violent-crime areas. Through increased police presence, BPD hopes to reduce the opportunities for criminals to get away with crimes.
Summer is a period of relatively high crime. Maybe it’s because heat stresses us out (and especially muggy heat)! There is a large body of science on weather and crime, however, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics is only the latest entity to enter the fray. Gerhard Falk found in 1952 that people have studied weather patterns and crime since before the 1900s.
So what does the return of Mayor Bell’s Operation Eagle mean for Birmingham? I was unable to get in contact with the mayor’s office, but expect more police!
