Jackson Jambalaya

Othor Cain, WJSU News Director, recently penned a column in The Clarion-Ledger which pulled no punches in expressing his frustration with the crime problem in Jackson as well flaws in JPD:
"Contrary to media roundtables and popular belief, crime isn't a perception in downtown, south, north, east or west Jackson - it is a sad reality and the leadership of the JPD had better heed the warning....
Also insane is entertaining the notion of reducing the number of beats within the precincts. Most precincts are comprised of at least 13 beats; however, reducing the number of beats to eight - thereby expanding the coverage area for a patrol officer and reducing the need to pay overtime - is being discussed...
When I learned that money within the Jackson Police Department's budget had been found to purchase hats and that the hats would be a mandatory requirement, I almost laughed myself into a fit. I thought: Is this 1960? Has Sheriff/Chief Malcolm McMillin had a flashback to when he was a JPD officer? These hats are not only archaic but are an extreme waste of taxpayers' money....
I recently learned the internal affairs department is planning to make spot checks to ensure the hats are being worn. While the uniformed hats make for professional attire, they do little to aid in crime-fighting and even less in terms of putting money in these officers' pockets....
Before McMillin became chief of police for the city of Jackson, his management style had gone virtually unnoticed. Little attention was paid to his day-to-day running of the Hinds County Sheriff's Department..."

Mr. Cain makes very good points, but the problems at JPD run deeper than Mac's management style. JPD has been a dysfunctional agency for decades, as JPD drama has constantly dominated the news since the late 1980's.

Merge JPD with the Hinds County Sheriff's Office
Leadership starts at the top and any smoothly functioning organization must have stability in its management. Such as not been the case at JPD. For the last TWENTY years JPD has had a new chief on average of EVERY OTHER YEAR. Black, Newell, Johnson, Walker, Wilson, Coleman, Anderson, McMillin. During Harvey Johnson's tenure, the department was run by an interim chief for nearly a year after the stooge whom he chose to replace JPD's best chief in twenty years with stepped down in a cloud of scandal. Instability has been the rule, not the exception.

No business or organization can function properly when the top job is a revolving door. The problem will continue as we elect a Mayor in 2009. Assuming Frank does not get re-elected, there will be yet ANOTHER police chief. Unfortunately, fighting crime is such a basic and necessary function of government, that Jackson simply can not tolerate this way of doing things any longer. We should seriously examine removing JPD from the control of the Mayor's office and merging it with the Hinds County Sheriff's office. We can't afford to wait another twenty years to fix JPD.

It is clear Jackson's political culture will not allow for a police department which is stable and only makes headlines when it makes arrests. The current system allows for LESS accountability for JPD, as it is buffered from public criticism by the Mayor and City Council. If JPD merges with the Sheriff's office, the chief law enforcement officer would be answerable DIRECTLY to the public, as well as the Board of Supervisors and one assumes the Jackson City Council. The head of the agency would have to go to the voters every four years, defending his record and taking criticism. He will not be able to hide behind the Mayor or his council cronies. Jackson will also be assured of more stability, as at worst, the chief would only be replaced every four years. As long as Jackson's political culture is run by buffoons like Frank Melton and Kenneth Stokes, and its best and brightest such as LeRoy Walker and Beverly Hogan choose not to run for office, the damage the clowns can do must be minimized, and removing JPD from their control will be a step in the right direction.

Stop Promoting from Within JPD
The other problem is JPD is a family created by inbreeding and incest, as virtually none of the leadership comes from other jurisdictions. A basic tenet of Management 101 is to bring in management periodically from outside the organization. New ideas are introduced. Unhealthy relationships are kept to a minimum. A dysfunctional culture has less of a chance to take root and flourish. Unfortunately, JPD resembles a large family from the hills of Arkansas and has for quite some time.

Look at the leadership of JPD: Mac. Tyrone Lewis. Gerald Jones. Lee Vance. Ron Sampson. All JPD officers before they assumed their current positions. For too long, the practice at JPD has been to promote JPD officers to leadership positions. Although he was an outsider it must be remembered he was a JPD officer for years before he became Sheriff. It is no surprise JPD is so screwed-up when it continues to merely hire from within the department. Any reading of Othor Cain's blog, http://www.othorcainreport.com/b2/, will show the discord existing among the police force. The police department is currently made up of different factions, each answerable to its own little satrap holding a leadership position.

Leaders such as Lewis and Sampson get in trouble, are demoted, then reinstated a few months later as if nothing ever happened. Millions of dollars in grants are unspent and wasted because the leadership has no expertise in handling grant money. The leadership is clueless on how to deal with what is a common practice for law enforcement agencies : releasing police reports to the public. The Assistant Chief's first thought is how to keep information about his department from getting out, not serving the public. The same official has been at JPD for a long time, thus showing where his true interests lie. New blood and ideas are rarely introduced into JPD.

Mac should cease the practice of hiring from within and instead start recruiting from outside the deparment (preferably outside of Mississippi) for candidates for leadership jobs when they become available. If that means running ads and hiring headhunters, so be it. There is a greater need for hiring competent leadership from outside JPD than there is for purchasing a bunch of hats. Until outside leadership is brought into JPD, expect more of the same drama which has plagued JPD for twenty years.

It is easy to get caught up in dealing with the regular aspects of fighting crime while avoiding the bigger picture. The media and our leaders have failed to ask if Jackson is best served by its current law enforcement structure and hiring practices. Crime has been a severe problem in Jackson for twenty years now and a major factor in driving Jacksonians to the suburbs. While some say under past administrations crime was better, it must be said to them three feet of flood water is better than ten feet of flood water but you are still flooded and Jackson has been flooded with crime for quite a while. Jacksonians should take crime-fighting away from the politicians and tell the current leaders to quit using good ole boy networking and start acting like real managers. Until then, expect more of the same crime problems in Jackson.