Selma Mayor George Evans wants city government to help the Selma Police Department fight crime by implementing a reward system.

Selma has seen three murders in 2015, and two of them came within just a few hours of each other.

“We’ve had a lot of murders in Selma recently where we have not apprehended the individuals who did the killing,” Evans said. “We’ve had enough of the killing around here and people walking the streets that have murdered someone.”

According to Evans, the program would offer rewards to people that turn in suspects that are wanted for murder, shootings and other violent crimes.

“We’re trying to find a way to put up rewards for someone to come in and tell, so we can get these people off the streets who are doing these killings, as well as those who are breaking into houses and stealing people’s TVs and other things,” Evans said.

Evans brought the idea before the Selma City Council Tuesday night, and the idea seemed to be well supported by council members.

“They’re all in favor of it. I don’t know of any one council member that was here tonight that is not in favor of it,” Evans said. “All of them do not want this happening in our city. We don’t want that dark cloud hanging over our heads.”

Evans said the city can only offer up to $3,000 for an award, but citizens are able to donate to make the cash prizes even more enticing.

“If individual citizens want to donate to that fund, then we can get it as high as we can get it,” Evans said. “I’d like to see it up to $25,000 or $50,000 for someone being apprehended and convicted of a crime such as murder or burglary.”

Evans said he hopes to have larger rewards for more serious crimes like murder and smaller rewards for lesser crimes.

Evans said there are people out there that know who is responsible for the crimes that are committed in the Queen City, and he is determined to have the people responsible for them brought to justice.

“We don’t agree with what is going on, so we want to send a message that we’re going to do whatever we can to be a part of apprehending people who violate the law,” Evans said.

Evans hopes to have the program put into place as soon as possible.

“We hope to have something written formally by the next Selma City Council meeting,” Evans said.

Evans also discussed finding ways to come up with money to add additional officers to the police department and increasing salaries of those already on the force.