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LEAD Coalition calls on biz community involvement

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PANAMA CITY — Panama City Police Chief Scott Ervin called upon the local business community Friday to join in on a new initiative to combat crime among youth in the area following a string of gun-related homicides last summer.

Ervin served as the keynote speaker at the Bay County Chamber of Commerce’s monthly First Friday event this week, and urged the hundreds of local business leaders in attendance to get involved in the Leadership Empowerment and Authentic Development (LEAD) Coalition, an organization formed in the wake of the shootings.

“In a short, five-month period we had eight homicides, and that obviously sparked a lot of community concern,” Ervin said. “Even though we had had homicides in the city in the past, in … Panama City every year ... we had not seen them happen in such a short time period.”

Offenders in the string of violent crimes ranged in age from 14 to 25, with victims aged 17 to 25. The crimes, Ervin said, were targeted attacks over seemingly minor incidents, including a stolen bike and a dispute over a girl, and showed “complete disregard for human life.”

Ervin said the LEAD Coalition is seeking to collaborate with more businesses, schools, churches and civic organizations in the community to help combat the issue.

“We don’t want to lose our youth, and we don’t want to see this violent trend continue,” he said. “Prevention doesn’t start with the police department. Prevention starts at home. Prevention starts at school; it starts at church, in the neighborhoods.”

While the homicide rate was up 1.2 percent last year in Panama City, rates decreased for other violent crimes, including robbery and sex offenses, he said. The city also saw a 16.9 percent increase in property crime including burglary and theft, spiked by a 60 percent increase in motor vehicle theft.

Of all types of crime, however, Ervin said homicides have the biggest impact on a community, both financially and perceptually.

“When those reports hit, especially with the homicides and how fast they occur, it creates a perception in the community,” Ervin said. “We also have to be concerned with the whole, big picture here, the economy, the climate.”

LEAD Coalition Director Janice Lucas encouraged the business community to attend organizational meetings, held on the second and fourth Friday of each month at 8:30 a.m. The next meeting will be Jan. 23 at the Panama City Marine Institute, 200 E. Beach Drive, in downtown Panama City.

“The managing partners have formed the organization for us now to collaborate and move forward with what it is we need to do,” Lucas said. “We need this business community to come and join us.”

Other business: Friday’s event was a collaboration between the Bay County Chamber of Commerce and the Panama City Beach Chamber of Commerce, and was sponsored by Copy Products and Superior Residences of Panama City Beach, which will host a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony Feb. 24.

The Bay Chamber awarded the Life Management Center on E. 15th St. in Panama City with the “Apple of our Eye” Award for renovation, and new Panama City Beach apartment complex Edgewater Crossings with the same award for new construction.

The Panama City Beach Chamber also recognized Terrance Woullard, owner of Fahrenheit Grill and Lounge in Panama City Beach, with its quarterly Small Business Award.


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