Jackson Free Press

Read the report here.

It's no secret that wherever you have college students, you're going to have mischief. When it comes to addressing crime at Tougaloo College, however, it gets tricky for the Jackson Police Department.

Although most of Tougaloo's campus lies in Madison County, a small sliver lies in the city of Jackson, meaning JPD must occasionally investigate crimes there. Assistant Police Chief Lee Vance characterized the situation as not even a minor annoyance.

"For the most part, Tougaloo is trouble-free," Vance said, adding that JPD maintains a good working relationship with Edna Drake, Tougaloo's public-safety chief. Drake is a former Jackson assistant police chief.

Still, at this morning's weekly police brief, nervousness over the Tougaloo problem seemed palpable. Over the holiday break, JPD responded to four burglaries at the college. When that happens, Jackson cops have to go through Madison County to secure indictments; the crime stats stay with Jackson.

With two-and-a-half weeks left in 2011, JPD has a good chance for all four of its geographic precincts to finish out the year with an overall reduction, Vance told commanders this morning.

While the Tougaloo burglaries certainly won't help, neither will the potential for other types of crime that peak around this time of year when burglars target homes and cars that may contain Christmas presents, robbers single out people who may be walking around loaded with holiday shopping cash, and schools release angsty young people for winter break.

"All these things could flip and ruin our crime reduction efforts just like that," Vance warned commanders.

Below is a snapshot of major crime in Jackson. For the complete breakdown by type of crime and geographic precinct, read the entire report .
 
Total Major Crimes

This week: 227
Last week: 191
Increase: 18.8 percent

Year-to-date: 10,982
Last year-to-date: 11,156
Decrease: 4.6 percent

Total Property Crime
This week: 199
Last week: 153
Increase: 30.1 percent

Year-to-date: 9,421
Last year-to-date: 9,849
Decrease: 4.3 percent

Total Violent Crime

This week: 28
Last week: 38
Decrease: 26.3

Year-to-date: 1,561
Last year-to-date: 1,667
Decrease: 6.4 percent