Mothers Against Crime (MAC) held its annual banquet May 10 at the Eatonton Elks Lodge, where several speakers addressed an audience of about 50 members.
According to Mothers Against Crime founder Georgia Benjamin- Smith, the nascent moment for the Eatonton-based organization came in 1992 with a women’s march that began at St. John AME Church and advanced to what was known then as “The Strip” in Eatonton, where several sketchy bars and juke joints had set up shop. That march marked the beginning of the end, she said, for street crime that was running rampant in the area just east of downtown.
Eventually, MAC was incorporated on June 20, 1995, and since that time, its influence has been felt countywide, though most efforts remain focused on the city of Eatonton.
These days, MAC participates at most civic celebrations and events as well as holds some of its own, including several “free yard sales,” per year, at which families can take what they need from donated clothing, toys, appliances, and anything else that may be helpful or necessary but beyond monetary reach for many.
The highlight of the banquet evening, however, was the keynote address by Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills, who took the opportunity to call for more recognition, understanding, and appreciation for the sacrifices and working conditions of law enforcement personnel nationwide.
The sheriff, a Putnam native who was reelected last November, is in his 51st year of law enforcement and his 29th as top cop in Putnam County. He said throughout his local tenure, he’s had “no greater support” for himself or his deputies than what Benjamin-Smith and the Mothers Against Crime organization provides.
That said, he added there are forces beyond crime threatening the ongoing safety and security the county generally enjoys.
“There’s a crisis in this country; I mean, a real crisis in law, and the public has no idea,” the sheriff began his talk. “Seventy-five percent of law enforcement agencies in this country — and that’s predominantly the most effective ones, the city police and the sheriff’s office — are facing a critical, critical lack of staffing. In my 51 years, I’ve never seen anything like that. Every sheriff I talk to, every police chief I talk to, no matter where, except for a few very rare places, is understaffed and can’t hire anybody to do anything about it.”
Sills said when he took office here in 1997, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office had 86 employees, including all administrative, 911, IT, and jail staff, with 20 deputies available for patrol.
He acknowledged that there were too many but pointed out the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction. Now, Sills said, he and one chief deputy work on solving various cases, and typically, only two or three deputies are available for patrol at any given time, with most working extensive overtime.
That was the logistical crutch stuck in Sills’ throat, but he also found another thing equally, if not more so, hard to swallow.
Sills began by stressing he holds as much respect and admiration as anyone for the sacrifices made by U.S. military members of all stripes, recognizing the value of service from those remaining at home in relatively safe environs to those who frequently face extreme, unknown, potentially deadly dangers.
Still, he said he can’t help but also feel the disparity between the admiration of military service compared to a general lack of public appreciation for the work of law enforcement professionals.
Just the fact that almost everyone knows of Vietnam veterans or World War II memorials in Washington, D.C., and everyone knows of Memorial Day coming up next Monday, but few are aware of President Kennedy officially declaring May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day or of the National Law Enforcement Memorial at Judiciary Square, also in Washington, supports his position.
“There are 24,400 names on that wall,” Sills pointed out, and in peacetime at least, being a law enforcement officer is generally much more hazardous than military service, he added.
“In the six years from 2017 to 2022, as far as hostile action, there were a total of 78 military personnel killed, which those not an accident. And in that same six-year period, 2017 to 2022, 327 law enforcement officers were killed while doing their duty,” Sills said.
The sheriff stressed again that he was not impugning any military members or their service, regardless of where, when, or how they served; he just feels that law enforcement officers deserve at least equal respect for their sacrifices on the job.
“Everybody knows about Memorial Day and how all the flags will be flown at half mast, as they should be,” Sills said. “But on May 15th, how many flags do you think will be flown at half-staff?”
It’s not just an exercise in semantics or appearances, though, the sheriff stressed. It provides at least a partial explanation of why, beyond lagging pay rates, it’s become so difficult to recruit and hire quality deputies these days.