Jackson Free Press

This morning, the Jackson Police Department reported 95 house burglaries for the week of June 28 through July 4--an increase from 79 in the prior week. Overall, major crimes decreased from 268 to 260, citywide.

During the same week last year, JPD reported 85 burglaries citywide. The highest numbers of burglaries occurred in Precinct 1 with 27, a decrease from 28 the prior week; Precinct 2 reported 28, up from 7; and Precinct 3 reported 27, the same as last week.

During this morning's ComStat meeting, Assistant Police Chief Lee Vance said the increase in house burglaries wasn't necessarily related to the holiday weekend.

"To be honest, you have fluctuations in those numbers," Vance said. "... I think what usually happens, is that sometimes you get people who may have just been released from jail, and they go into certain areas, and boom, you see the burglaries start to go up."

Vance advised officers to put strategies in place to lower the break-ins by educating neighborhood residents and increasing patrol units during odd hours.

Other major crimes statistics include: an increase in auto break-ins from 54 to 56; a decrease in auto theft from 43 to 26; an increase in business burglaries from 12 to 22; and a decrease in grand larceny from 29 to 25.