Jackson Free Press

Read this week's crime report (PDF)

The start of high-school football season demands heightened vigilance from police officers, Jackson Police Department Assistant Chief Lee Vance said today. Speaking during the department's weekly command staff meeting, Vance urged precinct commanders to prepare crime prevention plans for upcoming high school football games in the city.

"These football games--especially the first three or four of the year, before the weather turns cool and they figure out who's winning and losing--are very, very well-attended affairs," Vance said. "They're not to be taken lightly. We need to be concerned about traffic; we need to be concerned about crowd control; and we need to be concerned about burglary suppression."

Overall, burglary numbers in the city are mixed. For the year to date, auto burglaries are down 6.5 percent, while house burglaries are up 13.6 percent and business burglaries have increased 27.4 percent from 2009. Last week, officers reported an increase in auto burglaries, from 36 to 79, largely due to spikes in south Jackson's Precinct 1 and northeast Jackson's Precinct 4. House burglaries and business burglaries citywide dropped last week by 16 percent and 40 percent, respectively.

After a roughly 10 percent decrease last year, violent crimes for 2010 are up 23.7 percent. Last week, officers reported 36 total violent crimes, one more than the previous week.