Jackson Free Press

In a packed and muggy auditorium and under the watchful eye of instructors who continued barking orders throughout the ceremony, 33 new recruits joined the Jackson Police Department this morning.

"You'll spend a lot of time dealing with the criminal element, but you'll spend a lot of time dealing with law-abiding citizens," Deputy Chief Grant Parker told the recruits at the William L. Skinner Jackson Police Training Academy.

The class of 26 men and seven women are the first wave toward the JPD reaching a benchmark of a 500-officer force, which the department should hit sometime next year. Another academy class of 35 starts in January, and a third is set to commence in April.

A federal grant helped to hire about 25 of the new officers who will be deployed immediately into the city's precincts. Precinct 1 will get 10 additional officers, Precinct 2 and Precinct 3 will each get eight and Precinct 4 will get seven, Parker said.

Police Chief Rebecca Coleman also said that the beefed-up force would help alleviate problems with overtime that have been in the news recently.

"Any time you have additional officers in the street that will assist us in manning different events and things that happen in the city often require overtime," Coleman said after the graduation ceremony this morning.

On Dec. 13, City Council members expressed concern about the amount the city is paying for employees working overtime. Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr., who also delivered remarks to welcome what he called the city's new heroes and heroines, said at the Dec. 13 meeting that his office was developing policies to better guide overtime usage. He added that overtime work is sometimes unavoidable, especially for police.