Friday afternoon the Evansville Police Department released a map of Evansville with the instances of gunshots that have been reported to the EPD during 2013 marked with a small black dot. Shortly the release the Reverend Adrian Brooks of Memorial Baptist Church fired off an email to Evansville Police Chief Billy Bolin admonishing him for the release.
Brooks asked about maps for sudicides and meth labs in his criticism of the release of the gunshot map. Brooks also asserted that center city development could be harmed by publishing such a map. The email interchange between the two gentlemen were as follows:
1. Gunshot map released by EPD
2. Rev. Brooks email to Chief Bolin
“Good afternoon,
I don’t think this should have been released. Did the coroner release a
map on suicides and where they are occurring in our city? Are we doing a meth
map as well? We are trying hard to redevelop the center city and highlighting
the criminal behavior of perhaps a few is not helping our efforts.
Rev.Adrian Brooks”
3. Chief Bolin’s response to Brooks email:
“Reverend Brooks,
I have been out of the office most of the day and have just read all of these e-mails. I think this map shows that we have a problem that needs to be addressed, which is exactly what we are trying to do. We have been trying to be as transparent as possible and I do think this should have been released. In answer to your questions, I’m not sure what the coroner releases, but we do put out a meth map, it is posted regularly on our web-site and we have done numerous news stories about this problem. The map we released today doesn’t single out any area of the city, but is an honest look at where our shots fired reports are coming from.
I think this would be a great time for us to all come together and address this problem. I’m more concerned about the problem than the reporting of it. The last thing we need is more of our youth dying to this senseless violence. If we truly want to redevelop the center city, I think we need to pull our collective heads out of the sand and start teaching our kids to make positive choices.
Billy”
4. Brooks’ retort to Chief Bolin’s email
“No head in the sand here chief. I live here. I don’t talk about the problems and then go back to my hamlet in the suburbs. I don’t appreciate anybody trying to portray our neighborhood as full of lawless people. Building three more new houses in this neighborhood. We offer a plethora of programs and services so I am not far removed from what goes on in our city . I am sure the map is a great marketing tool for center city development. I am sure it will go far to help with downtown development. You will not make it better with maps trust me!”
