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The Greensboro City Council unanimously asked City Manager City Manager Mitchell Johnson to find $500,000 in the budget to help fight crime, which was requested by the police chief during an emergency meeting being held Tuesday.



"The most important way that we can address these issues with the robberies, the homicides and the gang activities, is to give us funding," Greensboro police Chief Tim Bellamy told the City Council.



Several members of the Greensboro Police Department are addressing members of the City Council during an emergency meeting that began at 2:30 p.m. today that was prompted by a recent spate of homicides.

Viewers can watch the meeting on streaming video through the citys Web site.

Johnson is expected to report back to the council regarding the $500,000 at its Dec. 18 meeting.

"I know we can't go out here and magically rain down 200 or 300 police officers [to] put on the streets," Bellamy told council members. "But in the next six months until the end of the fiscal year, what we ask is for $500,000 so we can back-fill our patrol positions that we have vacant. That way we can have more calls responding to service."




The extra money would also be used so detectives could work extra hours on cases.




Bellamy also mentioned using reserve officers.

"The Greensboro Police Department is involved in several enforcement, investigative, and community partnerships, that are directed at reducing crime and making Greensboro a safer city," Bellamy said earlier at Tuesday's meeting.

Tuesday's meeting was prompted by a rash of homicides so far in December.


Between Dec. 1 and 8, seven people were killed: six shot and one stabbed. Two, police say, were victims of gang killings; three involved drug dealers.

"Certainly this spike of seven is very unusual and it appears to be unrelated," police Capt. Gary Hastings told council members at Tuesday's meeting.


Investigators are still trying to determine why one man was stabbed in his home and another was shot down in the street.



The 32 homicides this year are slightly above average for the past five years.



The recent violent crime wave prompted the City Council in its first official act as a newly elected body to schedule this afternoon's meeting with Bellamy and his staff.