There have been several stories in your Clarksdale Press Register over the past few weeks reporting on crime.
Home burglaries, robberies, murders of teenagers and reports of shots fired have grabbed the headlines and may have happened in your neighborhood. We’ll stop reporting them when they stop happening.
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, lawyer and judge 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 911. Police and sheriff’s deputies need all the help they can get.
And your tip may be the key to stopping crime in Clarksdale or Coahoma County.
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