County tries to curb crime

By Mary Hood (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Wednesday, September 3, 2008

NATCHEZ — The Adams County Sheriff’s Office is doing whatever it can to crack down on any potential crime for which Hurricane Gustav may have opened the door.

Tuesday afternoon, Sheriff Ronny Brown said if the lights were still out by 6 p.m., he would fully enforce the curfew and throw any violators in jail.

He said this is in effort to cut down on burglaries, looting and other criminal mischief.

He said the county has approximately 10 narcotics officers and approximately 10 Mississippi Department of Transportation officers are working with the county.

Also, he said four additional Mississippi Highway patrol officers have come to help patrol.

Brown said no criminal activity had taken place Monday night, but they don’t want to take their chances.

“That’s why we’ve got the extra officers in,” he said.

He said the county wants to avoid problems they had during and after Hurricane Katrina hit the area.

The county is prepared, he said.

“We know we have enough people here,” Brown said.

Natchez Police Chief Mike Mullins said there has been no increase in crime nor does he expect any.

He said there was no increase in crime during Katrina, so he doesn’t anticipate any, but they’ve also increased police force just in case.

“We have extra officers and investigators,” he said.

Even with gas stations still down Tuesday afternoon, Mullins wasn’t expecting any gas siphoning.

“We haven’t had it happen before,” he said.

Mullins people need to stay off the roadway right now and conserve fuel.

He reminded residents that as long as traffic lights were out, to treat each intersection as a four-way stop.