N. Charleston Police, community partners host crime awareness event

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - North Charleston Police want to create a safer environment for a community in the Charleston Heights area.

The department will be joined by community partners for its first crime awareness event of the year Thursday evening in the Chicora Community.

Aaron Hicks, an event co-organizer, says the event is all about gun violence awareness.

Hicks believes part of the reason violence is happening in the city is because people feel they have nowhere to turn.

He says community centers can be a part of the solution.

The Gethsemani Community Center on Beacon Street is a place Hicks wants more people to take advantage of.

He grew up going there and says it made a huge difference in his life.

“To see the enhancement of it where they can provide other things like a fitness room, where we can have children and adults continue to have a place to go,” Hicks says. “Everybody won’t come, everybody won’t revert back to the initiative that we’ve put in place, but we’re saving one or two, or hundreds.”

Lt. Tireka Wright with the North Charleston Police Department these events are helping to decrease crime in the area.

“We’re letting them know what kind of gun violence is going on,” Wright said. “We’re making the community know what’s going on so they can help us enforce and stop the bad apples or the bad people from coming in and terrorizing them.”

She says the police department has other initiatives in place to address this concern.

“We have 12 non-profits that we have donated money to work in this area and other areas that have gun violence issues,” Wright said.

She says there will be several crime awareness events this year in the city.

The event on Thursday will take place from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at 3310 Florida Ave.

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