City officials in Prichard praised outgoing Police Chief Jerry Speziale for reducing crime during his tenure, pointing to what they described as a 159 percent drop from October 2013 to July 2014. But a prominent community group questioned both the number and the lack of data behind it.
A watchdog pushes back
Severia Campbell-Morris, president of the United Concerned Citizens of Prichard, said she was not persuaded. The city, she noted, had been asked more than once to produce crime statistics supporting the claim. City spokeswoman Melanie Baldwin said the information was still being compiled.
Some television outlets reported the figure, which Campbell-Morris called “very inaccurate information.” She found the timing curious, coming less than a month after Mobile Police Chief James Barber said he was diverting some resources to help address problems in Prichard.
“Speziale is saying that he relieved this city of all crime and into the future,” Campbell-Morris said. “We have a lot of hot spots in the city that have not been addressed properly.” While crime may have declined, she said, without published statistics it was difficult to know. “That was just incorrect information,” she added.
Why the data lagged
The Alabama Criminal Justice Information Authority compiles annual crime statistics for cities and counties across the state. At the time, the most recent available report covered 2012, considered outdated by most agencies, with the 2013 report due that month. Nothing authoritative covering much of Speziale’s tenure was expected until roughly a year later, leaving the 159 percent figure without an official reference point.
An unusual figure
The percentage itself drew scrutiny. A drop of more than 100 percent is a striking way to describe a reduction, though large 159 percent swings do appear in other contexts. Various reports over the years had cited 159 percent increases in areas ranging from homebuyer interest in foreclosures to corporate net profits and charity care spending. In short, the number was attainable in some measurements, but its use to describe a crime decline invited questions about how it was calculated. If Prichard officials could produce the underlying data, the article noted, they could substantiate the claim.
A group often at odds with City Hall
Campbell-Morris’ organization had frequently questioned the administration of Mayor Troy Ephriam, including its handling of the search that brought Speziale from the East Coast to Prichard the previous year. Yet on this occasion, she expressed sympathy for the mayor over the manner of the chief’s departure.
“The chief left without notifying the mayor with regards to him leaving,” she said. “We thought that could’ve been dealt with a little bit better than that. At least make the man aware about it.”
The dispute captured a broader tension in Prichard, a city that had long struggled with crime and public trust. Residents wanted assurance that improvements were real and lasting, not framed by a single eye-catching statistic. Until the city released the figures, the debate over whether crime had truly fallen, and by how much, would remain unresolved, leaving both officials and skeptics to await the state’s forthcoming reports.