There have been several stories in your Clarksdale Press Register over the past few weeks reporting on crime.
Home burglaries, assaults, car burglaries and reports of shots fired have grabbed the headlines. And while Clarksdale finished 2019 with one of its lowest homicide rates in decades, we have seen that number creeping back up.
We hope our community realizes it is not just the job of the police chief and sheriff to stop crime. Law enforcement needs your eyes and ears to stop crime.
Too often citizens rant and rave that calling police or the sheriff’s department about a crime doesn’t do any good. We agree there may not be an immediate arrest and the caller may not see someone charged with that particular crime, but not calling guarantees nothing will be done.
We are a nation of laws and law enforcement uses those laws and bits and pieces of information and evidence to build a case and make an arrest. This newspaper urges every lawman in this county to always take their time and make sure the right person is arrested, charged and – if justice demands it – convicted and sentenced.
But their work usually starts with a telephone call by a citizen.
Suspicious vehicles with burglars inside can be stopped by police, if someone calls.
Drug dealers can be swept from our community and kept away from our children, if parents will call authorities and report suspected drug activity in their neighborhood or school.
The truth is crooks realize quickly, when a community is alert and willing to call the cops, and that it is time to move on and seek easier pickings.
Again it all starts with a telephone call.
You are the eyes and ears for local law enforcement in your neighborhood, your city and your community.
So pick up the telephone. Call in a tip. Police and sheriff’s deputies need all the help they can get.
