Jackson Free Press

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The Jackson Police Department is promoting 30 officers to the rank of sergeant, JPD Chief Rebecca Coleman said this morning at command staff meeting. The officers earned the rank by passing a three-part exam, the first one administered since a controversial test last year whose results were thrown out.

Sergeants are the lowest supervisory rank in the department and the officers promoted will also receive a pay increase. The sergeants will serve a one-year probationary periods before their promotions become final. Coleman told command staff that quarterly evaluations of the sergeants should not be mere "rubber stamp" approval of their performance.

"If they're not performing at the rate that they should as a supervisor at the end of the probationary period, then they won't be supervisors anymore," Coleman said. "I just refuse to keep dysfunctional people in positions."

Last month's exam was the first since the Civil Service Commission to threw out previous exam results. In June 2009, officers complained to the commission that the exam organizers barred some applicants from completing the entire exam, allowing only those who scored in the top 60 percent of the exam's first phase, a written test, to proceed to the second and third phases. Following an investigation, the commission threw out the results when it discovered that the test was identical to an earlier, leaked version.

Also at this morning's meeting, command staff shared weekly crime statistics, which show a 3.6 percent decrease in major crimes in the city. Officers reported 203 property crimes last week, down from 225 the week before. Violent crime rose slightly, from 26 to 39. For the year to date, both violent and property crime are higher than 2009 numbers, with violent crime up 17 percent over last year and property crime up 2.9 percent. The Violent crime increased despite of a drop in homicides, from 23 by the time last year to 16 this year.