In the wake of two murders and multiple shooting incidents since the beginning of the year, city officials have banded together to put reducing Selma’s crime as their main focus.

During a meeting Thursday in the Selma City Council chambers, city leaders, along with key members of the Selma community, heard reports from public safety leaders about what efforts will begin immediately to curtail some of the violence.

In addition to announcing increased patrols in crime hot spots throughout Selma, city leaders announced citizens would soon see roaming roadblocks and safety checks in some areas and a larger police presence.

But, following a three-plus hour meeting with police and fire officials, legal advisors and city judges on Wednesday, Selma Mayor George Evans said the first focus of their efforts will be making sure the city’s nightclubs are in full compliance with city codes and ordinances.

Two local nightclubs have been the scenes of murders in the early new year.

“We are going to start reviewing the past and present incidents at our clubs,” Selma chief of police William Riley said. “They have been a focas of some shootings, fights and disorderly conduct incidents in the past months.”

Evans said the focus with the clubs and other establishments would not be limited to reported criminal activity, but also to ensure the clubs adhere to a number of city codes.

“We are going to make sure we send our officers out into the city making sure all of the clubs and business are OK in terms of building operations,” said Evans. “We’re talking about business licenses, alcohol and liquor license. We need to make sure we have all of these in check; all of the business and clubs.”

The city’s fire department will also play a role in the renewed focus on licensing and code enforcement.

“As far as the fire department is concerned, my department will work hand-and-hand with Chief Riley’s department on some of these patrols,” Selma Fire Chief Mike Stokes said. “We are going to be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to the safety codes the city of Selma has adopted. We are going to go out and target business whether it be clubs, department stores, or whatever and beef up the inspections and hold them accountable to the code.”

One decision the mayor asked city attorney Jimmy Nunn to deal with was to adopt an issue of club policies of “bring your own bottle” or BYOB.

“We have had several calls as it relates to BYOB… in these clubs or parties,” Nunn said. “When we talked to [Alcohol and Beverage Control] Agent Mark Barber, he said there are other cities that are prohibiting this from happening in their municipalities. At this time it is my recommendation to present an ordinance to the city council on this Tuesday recommending that we do away with the BYOB. No just with the clubs, but any type of business in the city of Selma.”

Another way to deal with the clubs is by a city ordinance that was written into the books in 2004, which will allow police and the city council to shut down a business that is deemed in violation of codes sections, an illegal matter, detrimental to the health, or if it is determined a nuisance.

Evans expressed the need for more law enforcement to properly protect Selma.

“We have got to have more police presences,” Evans said. “We talked about how we can properly increase that police presence, because we need to find a way to encourage means of funding sources… I am going to the council to ask their input on how to properly secure our community so these criminals won’t take it away from us.”