One candidate for Leon County Sheriff says local law agencies need a single plan to fight crime. Walt McNeil insists he has just such a plan and will put it in place if he wins the next two elections.
McNeil headed up the Tallahassee Police Department from 1997 until 2007. He says crime went down while he had that job and the same thing would happen if he’s elected sheriff.
“(I'll) reduce the number of murders in our community by 30 percent; reduce the number of shooting victims in our community by some 20 percent,” he told reporters at a Tallahassee Press Center news conference on Tuesday (6/7).
But McNeil says he disagrees with incumbent Sheriff Mike Wood that most of the community’s crime takes place in certain mostly minority, low-income neighborhoods.
“I’m outraged that anybody in our community would agree that it’s okay to have pockets of crime that goes unabated for any length of time,” he said.
McNeil says all law enforcement agencies in Tallahassee and Leon County should follow a master crime-fighting plan that he’d put in place as sheriff. McNeil – a Democrat – faces Wood and former Sheriff’s Major Tommy Mills in the August 30th primary election.
