U.S. Army Civil Affairs soldiers helping Macon-Bibb with violence prevention

The Army has partnered with Macon-Bibb to survey the community about rising crime.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The United States Army is partnering with Macon-Bibb for a special civil affairs training mission. For the rest of the week, Civil Affairs soldiers from Fort Bragg in North Carolina will be stationed in Macon to help collect data for the county.

“They’re working as a force multiplier,” EMA Director Spencer Hawkins said. “So I only have three people in my department usually, but this week I’ll have seven, so that we can get out and get information.”

According to Macon-Bibb, the Army approached the county with the idea. Local leaders could use the troops for different projects but decided to focus on violent crime.

The county recently started the MVP (Macon Violence Prevention) initiative. Several weekly discussions are being held to collect ideas and solutions to violence in the county. Hawkins says this Army group will collect data to help make the forums more impactful.

“What we’re doing is our part to try to get a little more ground truth data about community violence issues directly from the folks that are impacted by it,” Hawkins explained.

Casey Martin, a public affairs officer at Fort Bragg, says the program is a win-win for everyone.

“They have the opportunity to go into communities, actually engage, analyze and understand these problems as they exist in our own hometowns here in the states,” Martin said. “They can work with your city leaders, help them understand how they can develop solutions and how the city can eventually solve their own problems with this outside entity looking in for them. And then take these lessons with them when they deploy to overseas missions.”

The soldiers will walk through various neighborhoods throughout the week, knocking on doors to survey people about how crime impacts them.

The county and Army encourage you to interact with any person you see walking in your area in a blue MVP shirt.