Tallahassee's North Monroe Street corridor has seen a rise in crime, traffic accidents and panhandling. Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil hosted a community breakfast on Saturday to get neighborhood feedback and inform area residents what law enforcement is doing to solve the problems.
Lots of that feedback focused on street corner panhandling by unhoused people. But Sheriff McNeil said too many well-meaning residents are actually enabling that behavior.
"If we want to get people off the roadway and out of the streets, let's not allow them to get money from us. And once we stop giving them money, if it's not productive, they'll stop doing that."
Instead, McNeil urged contributions to agencies like the Kearney Center that provide real services for the unhoused. And for resident worried about gun violence, Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell said one solution is to cut off the source of most weapons that get into the wrong hands.
"One of the things that's most consistent in all of our communities is unlocked vehicles that have firearms in them. And I can't say that enough, the sheriff can't say that enough, we say it all the time. Please lock your cars and take your guns inside."
Also during the Saturday morning session at the Restoration Place church was a discussion of human trafficking at some of the corridor's motels near I-10; another situation that law enforcers say they need citizen help to solve.
