In December, the Public Eye made a public records request for "The Jackson Police Department's most current plan for fighting crime. If parts are unreleasable, state why and provide releasable portions of plan."
Police Chief Shirlene Anderson has been at work on a plan for many months now, but when Councilman Marshand Crisler asked Anderson to share details of the plan with City Council on Dec. 20, Anderson refused, saying that this would tip off criminals.
Mayor Frank Melton made a similar argument in June, when he refused to share the crime fighting plan with Councilman Leslie McLemore.
"No sir, I will not share with you (the plan)," Melton said. "It makes no sense whatsoever to tell the bad guys how you're going to deal with them, and that's a mistake that we've made (in the past)."
In light of these previous refusals, I wondered whether the city would refuse to release the crime fighting plan, which is why the language in the records request is somewhat torturous. Today, however, the city responded, releasing a two-page crime fighting plan (PDF, 550KB).
The plan is in the form of a general order, outlining crime prevention priorities, the role of the office of community affairs, the role of precinct commanders and the role of individual officers. It's all perfectly reasonable stuff--right up to the minute you see the bottom of that second page.
Jackson's "most current plan for fighting crime" was signed by Chief Robert Moore on July 1, 2004.
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