Dozens of Lima residents came to the Lima Public Library on Wednesday to learn about the city’s efforts to reduce gun violence.
Photos by Mackenzi Klemann | The Lima News
LIMA — Pastor Steven Wash didn’t expect his own son to become a victim of gun violence when he joined the Lima Area Black Ministerial Alliance’s gun violence prevention task force.
But Wash’s duty became personal when his oldest son, Steven Smith, was shot and killed last July.
“It was a shock to us,” Wash said. “… We never thought we’d become a statistic.”
Wash and his wife, Verna, spoke during a forum hosted by LABMA on Wednesday at the Lima Public Library.
Panelists from Lima schools, courts and law enforcement discussed the city’s response to gun violence, including a new policing philosophy at the Lima Police Department, new gunshot-detection technology and new youth programs.
Mayor Sharetta Smith delivered good news to the crowd: Shootings in Lima have steadily declined in recent years.
So far this year, Smith said the Lima Police Department has investigated 19 shootings, four gun-related homicides and 106 calls for suspected gunshots fired, while four people have presented to Lima hospitals with gunshot wounds.
Compare that to 2020 when LPD investigated 24 shootings, nine gun-related homicides and 110 calls for suspected shots fired, and Smith sees evidence that the city’s new initiatives are working to reduce violence.
“We recognize that we still have a lot, a lot, a lot of work to be done in our community,” Smith said, “but we can’t do it alone, which is why nights like tonight are so important.”
Since Smith took office in 2022, the city has installed new street lighting, gunshot detection software and security cameras that connect to a nation-wide network to track vehicles and persons of interest — like the two inmates who escaped from Allen-Oakwood Correctional Institution.
Lima Police have since reinstated the SWAT team, raised the age limit for recruits and revived its proactive crime enforcement unit, which focuses on speeding, loud music and other quality of life issues that Smith credits with removing guns from the streets.
And Lima Police returned to beat policing, ending the department’s practice of pinpoint policing or concentrating officers in neighborhoods with the highest crime rates, which Smith said often resulted in over-policing of certain neighborhoods and under-policing of others.
“We’ve already been able to enhance and strengthen relationships between our department and our community partners through the use of just going back to that philosophy,” Smith said.
Smith held a series of community listening sessions last August after a young girl was injured in crossfire. She asked for LABMA’s help too.
The group started meeting with leaders like Allen County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey Reed, Lima schools Superintendent Jill Ackerman and juvenile court Judge Todd Kohlrieser to solicit ideas on how to deter youth from violence.
“I called and said I wanted to be involved because I’m tired of seeing young people ruin their lives and ruin the lives of other people,” Reed said.
“We can’t keep losing our kids or our families to gun violence,” Ackerman said. “We just can’t.”
Dozens of community members came out Wednesday to learn about the city’s efforts to curb gun violence, with several offering their churches and facilities as an outlet for troubled youth.
Lima Police Major Ron Holman said officers have confiscated 142 firearms involved in crimes this year, similar to past years.
“That seems like a lot of guns,” Holman said, “and it’s nowhere close to the amount that are out there being used in crimes.”
