What can we do about crime?

Crime is a problem in most of America, it is everywhere. However, it is worse in Vicksburg than in almost any other place in America and Mississippi. For cities our size, we rank among the worst.

Why is crime worse here? There are many contributing factors, some that can be improved quickly and others that will take time. Poverty in our area is 27.9%, well above the national average of 11.1%. That is a significant factor in increasing the risk of criminal activity. People who can’t meet basic needs may resort to illegal activities to survive. Efforts to decrease poverty take time and include things like better education, better employment opportunities and business investment. More business means more jobs.

Something we can do locally and immediately is to fund law enforcement agencies and pay officers competitively.

For the past 12 years, Vicksburg has underfunded the police department and underpaid our officers. At one point, the city took $60,000 out of the police budget to renovate the Robert M. Walker Annex meeting room. That is the new desk you see the Mayor and Aldermen sitting behind in the board meetings.

Underfunding the police department and the low pay we offered has led to staffing shortages and low morale among officers. Additionally, nationwide there has been a negative shift in the perception of law enforcement, contributing to the staffing issues. Those two issues have combined to make it difficult for the VPD to find officers willing to work for a low wage.

A few months ago, just before his reelection campaign began, Mayor Flaggs admitted that he was wrong for not paying officers competitively. The pay was increased, and the department has been staffing back up.

It’s complicated

More officers on the street may reduce crime, but reducing crime is a complex issue. There are conflicting studies as to whether adding officers reduces crime. However having more officers on the force means calls are responded to quickly, which helps people feel more safe. It also means police can focus on hotspot crime areas and have officers available to work on community programs to reduce crime.

If the community is involved and works with law enforcement to fight crime, crime will go down. Even with those efforts and a more perfect world, there will always be crime. People will always argue and fight. People make bad decisions. There will always be crimes of opportunity. However, a community that is involved with police to reduce crime creates an environment where someone with criminal intent will be less likely to do so. They will go somewhere else.

Public relations

To get the community involved, it will take a good relationship between the community, city leadership and the police.

In Vicksburg, that is going to take some work. In late 2023, Commissioner Flaggs and Chief Jones decided to shut down public access to police scanners. Concerned citizens and media who had listened to police traffic for generations were cut off from that information. While authorities cited officer safety, most of the community perceived it as an effort to hide crime. That did little to build trust with the community.

In interviews, Mayor Flaggs repeatedly declared Vicksburg does not have a crime problem, further exasperating the trust between authorities and the public. In Board of Mayor and Aldermen meetings, Alderman Monsour claimed Vicksburg’s crime problem “…is miniscule when you look at other cities that surround us.(18:10)” To date, Alderman TJ Mayfield is the only one to say we have a crime problem.

Recent videos posted to social media have further harmed the reputation of the police department. One exposed how some officers have a lack of understanding regarding a U.S. citizen’s Constitutional Rights. Another showed a person being arrested after filming an arrest. Although the VPD says the man was arrested for other reasons, it wasn’t a good look and community buy in was low.

Solutions

To solve the public relations challenge those videos and city leadership has created, officials will first have to admit we have a problem. Flaggs took his first step in that direction just before election season by increasing officer pay. Since that time the VPD has hired a lot of officers. It’s too early to see the impact, but anecdotally, the Vicksburg Daily News has reported significantly less violent crime since we increased the number of officers on the street.

To improve public perception, VPD needs to get information out quickly when crime occurs. This is a critical first step to building public trust. Someone needs to be on camera telling the public what happened and what is being done. Media should be kept informed, not excluded. The current approach of shutting out the media has been perceived by the public as an attempt to hide information and protect officers.

The much ballyhooed NOLA cameras need to be kept in working order and monitored. They can be a great resource if kept in working order and operated properly.

We need to create and support more youth programs from early childhood to programs after school that target at risk youth and keep kids off the streets. If our young are busy playing in organized programs, they are far less likely to commit crimes. Cleaning up the streets and enforcing code also helps to reduce crime. Well maintained neighborhoods are less likely to experience crime.

Our officers who put their lives on the line for us and the citizens deserve leadership who will take our crime problem seriously and work to build public trust.