Columbus Police Officers Beef Up Patrol

[syndicaster id=’6174877′]

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- The recent rash of shootings has been a big concern for residents in Columbus.

In fact, Some residents said they no longer feel safe.

They’ve voiced their opinions about wanting more safety.

And as a result, the Columbus Police Department is bulking up their presence in the streets.

“Northside and Eastside, those are your pretty good hot spots right now,” patrol officer Christian Benton said.

Officers are looking to calm the fears in those concerned residents.

“The purpose of the patrol is to put more bodies on the street, have more law enforcement people in the community to help deter crime and let them know we’re here and we’re not going to tolerate it,” Benton said.

Each officer is assigned a certain area to cover in the city.

“Today I am south of main street, so anywhere south of that I’m in charge of,” Benton said.

And they patrol that area for hours.

“We look for anything out of the ordinary, anything out of place that doesn’t fit in the area, such as broken glass on the ground, people fighting, running, just different things that you can notice and observe,” he said.

Benton has been a police officer in Columbus for six years now.

He said , seeing the shootings stop, and knowing residents feel safe is the ultimate goal for this move.
“It’s a lot of good people here in the city and they need a good town and we’re trying to keep it that way,” he said.

And to keep it that way, Columbus Mayor Robert Smith approved overtime for the increased patrols.

“Overtime is included when we do our budgeting, our police department, fire department, all of our departments have this for unfortunate incidents that occur,” Mayor Smith said.

And to help keep these incidents from occuring, Benton and Smith both say it’s going to take everyone working together.

“We need the community out there, we need them watching, and we need them to know they can trust us,” Benton said.
The Police Department plans to continue this over the next 2 weekends.

Categories: Local News

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *