Crime down? Doubting the numbers
Writes Tim Kalich, editor and publisher of The Greenwood Commonwealth in the Jan. 17 edition: “Police Chief Henry Purnell wants Greenwood’s citizens to believe that this city experienced an unprecedented drop in violent crime and burglaries last year. Sorry, Chief. I don’t buy it…
“We contend that Purnell is violating state law by not making the individual crime reports accessible. Almost two years ago, the Mississippi Legislature closed a loophole in the state’s Public Records Act that some police chiefs and sheriffs had been abusing by withholding the incident reports on the excuse that the crime was ‘under investigation.’”