Brookhaven Police Chief Kenneth Collins says he has safety concerns and a plan for the City of Brookhaven.

Moving ahead to install cameras to help fight and prevent criminal activity is at the heart of the plan the chief has repeatedly offered before the Board of Aldermen and in comments to the public. His most recent comments — offered just after the Memorial Day holiday — are as follows:

 

I want the City of Brookhaven to know that we have one of the safer cities in this area, and God is not a spirit of fear.

What I’m trying to do is to get this city prepared for the storm at our door. It shouldn’t have taken almost two years to get the FUSUS system — the artificial tech that will connect to and gather information from all existing compatible cameras. We should have had it before.

So now what I’m trying to get the City to do, while waiting on the system to be installed and connected, is to start installing cameras compatible with FUSUS in the areas where we’re having problems. So as soon as FUSUS comes online, all we have to do is to connect it to the cameras already installed and functional.

We must not wait until all hell breaks loose before we react. We cannot continue to be reactive to crime. Crime waits for no one; it is 24 hours a day. We must be proactive to keep our city safe for our kids and their kids for the future of this town.

They’ve tried to silence me but I will not be silent because this is too important for the future of our city. I need the help of the community, the citizens of Brookhaven, to help me accomplish this.

I’ve already taken money from our drug seizure fund and starting purchasing cameras for the Rogers Circle area. The aldermen allowed us $15,000. I will ask for the rest — $30,000 — that my officers worked so hard and risked their lives to get from drug dealers to use for the safety of the community.

I want Rogers Circle to be a model for other communities to show what a difference this will make in this area. Then we can move to other areas and start implementing the same thing. This is the vision God has given me for this city, but I can’t do it without the citizens’ help.

So many times I feel like I know how Noah felt when he started building a boat in an area where no rain came. Everyone mocked him and called him crazy … until the flood came.

With love and respect for my city.