Law enforcement is one of those things that, unless you’re involved with it, many people don’t think about most of the time. We all tend to take good police protection for granted.

We can all take that blissful attitude until we become the victim of a crime. Then we want the police to appear instantly and solve the crime.

Whether it’s as benign as a neighbor’s noisy stereo or as serious as an armed robber or a murder, good law enforcement is vital to keeping law and order and giving citizens peace of mind.

Unfortunately many of us don’t think about whether our law enforcement is effective on a day-to-day basis.

Judging from recently released statistics from the Natchez Police Department, most crimes are down in the city. And across the river, the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Department figures also show a slight drop in overall criminal reports.

And we think that the drop is likely due to good police work.

Given the recent news of slightly lower crime statistics and the upcoming city elections, we feel it’s important to emphasize the need for our community to continue putting resources into law enforcement.

Public officials should work to increase the pay of our law enforcement officers and spend the necessary funds to get state-of-the-art crime-fighting equipment.

Our community should pay attention to the need for continued law enforcement support before we suddenly notice our crime stats on the rise.