Vicksburg’s public safety meeting failed to meet its goals

The Vicksburg Daily News applauds public servants who make a difference in the daily lives of the city’s residents, and that includes members of its police force, who daily make the decision to protect and serve.

Unfortunately, Thursday night’s public safety meeting fell short of creating the impact the city’s leadership wanted to make.

It’s no secret that Vicksburg has a crime problem, which is also a problem of perception. In recent months, the police department has shared some statistics in an attempt to quash the perception, including arrests made and selected traffic stops.

In September, Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs Jr. called a public safety town hall, which was rescheduled after a particularly violent weekend in the city.

We believe the original goals for the meeting were good.

“It’s my intention for the public to question and give comments to our police department so they can better combat crime and reach our goal of a zero tolerance of crime in Vicksburg,” Flaggs wrote in his Sept. 23 announcement postponing the meeting.

We would love to have a public meeting that works to achieve the mayor’s goal.

The rescheduled meeting made a number of changes to the original format, however, none of which were received with enthusiasm by city residents, as evidenced by the anemic turnout.

One comment on Facebook summed up what we heard from numerous residents: “They want questions in advance so they can answer the softballs and ignore the hard questions. This may as well be a press conference. What’s the point if the public can’t ask anything?”

Originally, the meeting was to be televised on the city’s channel and live streamed on its Facebook page. The rescheduled meeting banned all recording, audio and video, even for the press, which uses recordings to ensure accuracy. A local TV outlet was not allowed in the room.

The original town-hall format allowed for interaction with panelists. The rescheduled meeting specified that all questions had to be emailed in writing beforehand. The VPD selected which of the questions would be answered.

The Vicksburg Daily News submitted 22 questions, none of which were addressed. We did submit one additional question, filling out a card before the meeting, and that question was asked and answered, although without the benefit of a follow-up, the answer was far from satisfactory.

No interaction took place. No follow-up questions were invited.

After answering a dozen pre-selected questions, the meeting was over 22 minutes after it started.

At the beginning of the meeting, moderator Capt. Mike Bryant stated that the goal was to create a dialog between residents and the police force.

That’s a great idea. Dialog and transparency are key to creating good will and cooperation between residents and police.

That goal was not accomplished, either. Of the five panelists on the stage, one made no comments whatsoever. Police Chief Milton Moore, a normally soft-spoken man, was difficult to hear. The other three frequently sounded defensive instead of helpful.

Residents of Vicksburg deserve the opportunity to interact with their public servants. We would be enthusiastic about having a real town hall, where people can ask questions and interact instead of just being talked to. Furthermore, given that many residents are unable to attend meetings, we believe the original plan of televising and streaming the meeting should be revived for any future public-safety meetings.

We understand that a wide-open format can become loud and sometimes rowdy, and we expect that’s not an atmosphere most police officers find comfortable. We invite police leadership to step out on that skinny branch, nonetheless, because what it will do is begin to foster an authentic atmosphere of trust in the community.

Without community trust, police are frequently hamstrung from making the impact they and the mayor seek to make: lowering crime.

Every Vicksburg resident should support that goal. Police leaders should meet the community half way to get there.