Warning Against Fake Crime Posts

Just last month, a Montgomery woman was arrested after falsely reporting a boy’s death on Facebook.
Montgomery police say 20-year-old Bailey Simmons was charged with falsely reporting an incident, which is a misdemeanor.
The post said a 12-year-old boy was shot and killed over the weekend.
Police say Simmons admitted to fabricating the post after being questioned.

Mayor Todd Strange says is something that needs to stop.

“Lets don’t try to embellish it. If you need to alert somebody, do that. But lets not talk about the false things or the things you have dreamed about,” said Mayor Todd Strange.

Recently, another email post started circulating reporting of an alleged attempted abduction at a gas station on Eastern Boulevard by African men.
That, too, has not shown any evidence of the crime.

“In the last 30 days, there are two cases where we have wasted tons of resources trying to track down things that are on Facebook that just didn’t happen. And, frankly, to some extent, things that are punishable by law. We will prosecute to the extent that its applicable,”said Strange.

Chris Murphy, the Director of Public Safety, says that law enforcement is doing their best to keep the public safe

“We’ve divided into sectors. We’ve gone in to 12 hour shifts, and we’ve put in a command staff all the time,” said Murphy.

But he says that’s not enough.
He says the best time to stop crime is before it happens and it could start at home.

“The trend that we’re seeing is that more and more of these criminals are young, they are kids as far as I’m concerned, and the parents either aren’t involved or are challenged to be in their life,” said Murphy.

Mayor Todd Strange also stressed the need for better parental involvement as a way to decrease the number of juveniles committing crimes:

“Parents know what your kids are about, you know if your kids aren’t at home at night, you know if your kids are skipping school and not doing their homework and stuff like that. And if you don’t feel like you can handle it, we’ve got agencies that are all around the city that would want you to reach out to them and get some kind of help,” said Strange.