Video: Clay County Leaders Speak Out About Jurisdiction Boundaries

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CLAY COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) — Clay County leaders explain how they work together to keep everyone safe, after Jackson city council member Kenneth Stokes spoke out about law enforcement crossing over into other’s jurisdiction.

“Our policy pretty well models other jurisdictions”, says Clay County Sheriff Eddie Scott.

Clay County Sheriff Eddie Scott and West Point Police Chief Tim Brinkley agree, the key to making the county city relationship work is communication.

” One advantage we have is we stay in close contact with other agencies, so if we have something that spills over, we immediately contact them,” says Sheriff Scott.

“We see the Golden Triangle as one big community and we try to work it from that stand point,” says Chief Brinkley.

When something crosses a boundary …

“We have shift supervisors that make the call as to determine if we terminate or not,” says Sheriff Scott.

Even with the best laid out plan, issues still arise, but Chief Brinkley says they just work them out.

“Instances where there is questions about jurisdiction, of course there are, but there has not been an instance where we were at each others throats or about to fight over that.”

Sheriff Scott says safety is the counties top priority when it comes to chasing down criminals.

“We don’t want to do anything that will endanger safety, we can always get the tag number and go for them later.”

and Chief Brinkley adds, county and city working together helps keep everyone safe, but support from the community is equally important.

“We can only be as effective, as the community that supports us allows us to be and without that support, we can not do out job.”

Chief Brinkley also says statements like Stokes’ only make his job harder, since it’s important for all public figures to work together for the good of the community.