Linder-Maple, Rejected

Photo by Darren Schwindaman
November 14, 2007

When the New York-based Linder Maple Group finished its $153,000 crime study in 1999, it outlined a list of recommendations for Jackson to reduce major crime.

Jackson Mayor Frank Melton—who back then was part of the Metro Crime Commission, which raised $110,000 for the study—told the City Council in October that his administration had largely done away with the recommendations.

“Things have changed since that study was developed,” Melton said. “It is no longer relevant.”

One of the recommendations was to increase the JPD’s head count, from the 1999 figure of 430 to 680.

Today, the city still battles with a low officer head count, thanks to retirement and attrition, and even risks losing federal funding due to stagnant numbers hovering around 420. An academy class now underway promises to graduate about nine rookies, still well below the 450-officer requirement for the federal grant.

Commander Tyrone Lewis said he is creating an incentive package to attract transfers from other agencies to reach the 450-figure by the end of December.

The study also demanded that the city use a computerized system for developing and monitoring a statistical crime map.

Former Chief Robert Moore accepted the system, called COMSTAT, and held weekly meetings with precinct commanders, where the chief took and offered recommendations on how to best focus on particular crimes plaguing each precinct. When the new administration arrived and crime increased, Chief Shirlene Anderson played down the importance of the numbers, refusing to release them to the public, and refusing to refer to precinct meetings as COMSTAT meetings.

A source inside JPD said the department recently rounded up police officers, like Chris Baker, who worked with COMSTAT handler Doug Scott—now deceased—to re-institute the program. Anderson did not return calls for comment.

The numbers are pointless without the human element, however, including interaction from precinct commanders and residents. Anderson has yet to re-introduce weekly precinct meetings, or the weekly press briefings her predecessor held.

Anti-crime organization SafeCity, which Melton once chaired, says the crime numbers the city has been putting out are dated and useless to citizens working through neighborhood watch associations to prevent crime.

“JPD began updating their information Sept. 25. However, the information being posted happened two weeks ago, not one week ago. Also, there is still no archived information so that citizens can compare week-to-week, month to month, etc. So, although we are happy to see improvement, we are not happy that the information is still not timely and still not archived so that citizens can get a better picture of what is happening,” SafeCity states on its Web site.

The study also wanted JPD detectives to improve case management and follow-up. Linder Maple Group Operations Manager John Yohe said in 2001 that detectives “received their cases almost willy-nilly … They might have 10. They might have 100. There was no real checking.”

Anderson did not return calls regarding how supervisors dole out police cases, though a source in the department admitted that supervision is virtually non-existent. Former police spokesman Tyrone Lewis referred questions to Asst. CAO Goldia Revies—who referred questions to Public Safety Administrator Linda Woolley, who did not return calls.

The study instructed the city to increase officers’ interaction with local businesses by forcing them to visit during patrols and sign sheets for verification—followed by the occasional surprise visit of a police “monitor,” checking to see if officers were truly making their rounds.

Lewis said Precinct 2 still used the sign-in procedure. Anderson and others did not respond to inquiries.

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