Members of the Jamestown City Council are pictured during a meeting in May. The council’s seven Republican members this week criticized Mayor Eddie Sundquist over comments on crime statistics during his three years in office. P-J file photo

The seven Republican members of the Jamestown City Council are accusing Mayor Eddie Sundquist of misleading the public on local crime trends.

In a scathing “rebuttal” to comments Sundquist made Tuesday during a public safety initiative rollout, the seven council members — Jeff Russell, Brent Sheldon, Tony Dolce, Randy Daversa, Andrew Faulkner, Bill Reynolds and Kim Ecklund — say crime has risen under the mayor’s watch.

“The breadth of inaccurate reporting, posturing and the fallacy of erroneous and incomplete data affirms he is not serving the best interests of our community,” the group said.

Sundquist, a Democrat, is seeking re-election as mayor to Chautauqua County’s largest city; he is being challenged by Ecklund, who sent by email the lengthy rebuttal on behalf of the Republican council members.

At issue are the comments Sundquist made when touting a new public safety initiative: Safer Jamestown N.O.W. — Neighbors on Watch, an effort to get the community more involved with policing.

“We as a city can and will do better and, focusing with Safer Jamestown N.O.W., we are committed to community-focused policing with residents and police working together to make our neighborhoods safer,” he said in the lobby of City Hall. “By empowering our community, and giving them the resources to do more, we can make Jamestown a safer place now.”

Sundquist said gun-related offenses and domestic violence cases have decreased so far this year.

The seven Republicans, however, countered the narrative that crime is decreasing, noting that shootings topped 24 last year. In 2019, a year before Sundquist took office, the city recorded 11 shooting incidents.

“Similarly, on Sundquist’s watch, our community has realized a 118% increase in shootings that resulted in death or injury since he took office in 2020,” the council members said. “The mayor also noted that domestic violence cases have decreased by 9%. A review of the Jamestown Police Department data highlights that this, too, is false. Domestic violence cases have, in fact, risen by 12% since Sundquist took office.”

In a statement addressing the rebuttal, Sundquist said the 2023 crime stats he brought up were verified from the police department and were being compared to 2022.

“We are halfway through the year and there is positive momentum to keep our community safe,” he said. “It is sad my Republican colleagues would undercut the incredible work our police department has done to employ community driven policing and reduce crime. Politics should not be put before public safety.”

“My administration, in conjunction with our hard working employees, have been solution-focused on finding ways to solve our public safety challenges,” he continued. “When I took this office, it was my hope I could work with City Council to create bipartisan initiatives for this community. We are all Jamestown residents and must work together to find solutions to our challenges. It is unfortunate my Republican Council colleagues continue to criticize, rather than participate, in moving Jamestown forward.”

Timothy Jackson, Jamestown police chief and director of public safety, alluded to the increased crime rate last year in the department’s 2022 annual report. In it, he said the rate rose 3.5% in addition to a nearly 11% increase in overall arrests.

However, Jackson said in the report that the jump was attributed to “more proactive targeted enforcement” by officers and use of Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) funding to target areas of high crime.

In 2022, there was a 30.8% increase in cases involving reported use of a firearm compared to 2021. All of the firearm-related violence was targeted and related to narcotics trafficking, Jackson said.

“In response to the increased crime rate, in 2023 the Jamestown Police Department plans on conducting more targeted impact patrols in areas with a high crime rate,” the police chief said in the department’s annual report. “We will be using our GIVE funding to conduct hotspot and micro hotspot policing in targeted areas.”

Ecklund said her criticism of the mayor’s handling of crime does not extend to Jackson. “He’s doing a great job as are the men and women in uniform,” she said.

In their remarks, the Republican council members claim Sundquist has “embraced” the state’s bail reforms law. Beginning in 2020, New York eliminated cash bail for many nonviolent felonies and required appearance tickets instead of arrests for low-level offenses.

Russell, Sheldon, Dolce, Daversa, Faulkner, Reynolds and Ecklund also claim Sundquist has been “intimately tied to several anti-police and ‘Defund the Police’ advocates who have made it their mission to push unsubstantiated methods of alternative policing, while criticizing and critiquing the efforts of our men and women in blue.”

Bail reform and the mention of “Defund the Police” have become common talking points, especially with Republicans, during elections.

“The honest, hardworking citizens of Jamestown recognize that laws without consequences simply result in criminals continuing to victimize and destabilize our community,” the seven Republicans said.

The council members also raised issue with openings in the police department. They claim that officers have left Jamestown “for more supportive communities.”

“This dangerous combination of mediocre leadership and lack of support from the administration has further jeopardized our community’s safety,” the seven representatives said. “Mayor Sundquist has also neglected to pursue opportunities to provide adequate funding to the Jamestown Police Department from the American Rescue Plan. Consequently, this has forced Jamestown City Council to designate funding and resources for the police department.”