A federal program designed to help Jackson fight crime appears to be paying off.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice expanded its “Violence Reduction Network” to the capital city.
The program, now referred to as the “Public Safety Partnership,” provides the department with tools to better map crime and identify trends, as well as opportunities to train officers.
Since expanding to Jackson, JPD officers have trained with departments across the country and department leaders have bolstered their already strong relationships with federal agencies like the FBI.
In the meantime, crime across the city has fallen.
Through mid-November, the city has recorded significant reductions in auto burglaries and thefts, grand larcenies, house burglaries, aggravated assaults, armed robberies and carjackings.
Police Chief Lee Vance doesn’t necessarily credit the city’s reduction in crime to PSP, but said it will help the department continue to address crime in the future.
“We’ve had a reduction in crime over the last three years, but to progress down that road, we have to incorporate new strategies,” he said. “For me, the biggest benefit (of PSP) has been the training.”
Vance said it’s been a challenge to provide training to his officers and staff with the department’s tight budget constraints.
A few years ago, the department had its budget slashed by as part of city-wide cuts. This year, the budget was increased slightly to $35 million.
Through the PSP program, the department is allowed to participate in peer exchange programs, which allow officers to travel to other law enforcement agencies that are part of the PSP network. Travel and training costs are picked up by the federal government.
Vance estimates that the training received would normally cost $500 per officer, meaning the department could only send one or two officers at time.
“Just the travel costs alone would have blown us out,” he said.
However, the PSP has afforded JPD to send out entire units for specialized instruction.
“We’re getting some very high-level training,” he said.
So far, JPD officers have met with and trained with departments in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Nashville and Little Rock.
“We took bits and pieces from them, and they took stuff from us,” Dept. Chief Joseph Wade said. “(Other agencies) were impressed with how we were able to maintain a reduction in crime throughout the year.”
He said agencies were also impressed with JPD’s homicide clearance rate.
JPD clears 75.4 percent of all homicides, compared about 11 points higher than the 64.1 percent national average.
“When individuals from Los Angeles came here and saw how our homicide detectives performed and looked at our clearance rate they left in awe,” Vance said. “We don’t have all the resources they have, yet we’re still making successful arrests and cases. We’re not that far behind if we’re behind at all.”
One program the department plans to put in place as a result of the training is EPIC, the “Ethical Policing is Courageous Program.”
The program is based on the New Orleans model designed to help officers diffuse other police officers in potentially volatile situations, Vance said.
It is designed to help save careers, according to an article found in a July to September 2016 newsletter from the Police Executive Research Forum.
EPIC was put in place as part of a federal consent decree, after the New Orleans Police Department was sued in federal court “related to Katrina-area shootings of unarmed people,” according to an October 24 article from NOLA.com.
Several JPD officers will travel to the Crescent City in March to learn about the program from other rank-and-file officers and then help train officers locally once they return home, Vance said.
Other training planned for the next year includes sessions in February to help officers improve their interrogation and court room testimony skills. That training will come in January or February.
JPD is also having bi-weekly meetings with federal law enforcement agencies, who are helping the department by providing technology and other sources for use in crime fighting.
Said Wade: “This has been a great asset to us.”
