As Columbus police try to get a handle on the violence that has plagued the city for nearly a month, community members are stepping up efforts to do their part to make their neighborhoods a safer place and are holding meetings to figure out solutions.
Last week, two homicide suspects were found hiding in the Family Missionary Baptist Church on the city's east side. Thursday evening, the church was filled with community members attending a Columbus NAACP town hall meeting -- the first of several to be held all over the city over the next few months. The goal is to figure out a solution to the violence.
"We have to sit at the round table and talk about it," said Crystal Smith, who lives on the east side. "We got to figure out what we can do. We can't set around and let it go because it's getting bigger, it's not going anywhere."
Noel Williams, president of the Columbus NAACP said it's about building a relationship of trust between community members and police.
When asked how meetings translate into safer communities, she said, "Well, one of the things we want to do is take the information from these meetings and take it to our elected officials to city council, to the mayor and say this is how the community feels."
On the other side of town in the Hilltop, another community meeting was being held by the Highland West Neighbors Association.
"I'm hoping people will come and join together and watch their street, in other words, a block watch," said Tom Johnson, who lives in the Hilltop.
Marilyn Stalsworth, safety chair of the association said their main goal is increasing communication among people living there.
When asked what she realistically hopes to get out of the meeting that can make a difference on the street, she said, "When I was a kid, if you did something three blocks away from home, by the time you got home they knew it. We want that."
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