Citizens express Concerns to Mayor

Community members gathered last night at a special called Neighborhood Watch meeting to express their concerns to Mayor Jimmie Smith on several issues, one of the main ones being how to cut crime down and get the youth on different path.

Community members expressed several issues from: street paving, tax dollars, and enforcing laws at a neighborhood watch meeting.

One of the issues that was brought up throughout the meeting was how is the city government planning to cut crime down centered around the youth.

“I’m concerned about our youth here in Meridian”, said Doris Payne. “I’m concerned about the guns. Where are they getting these guns from? We need to get our youth involved in different activities.”

Annie Malone who moved to Meridian seven years ago says her two properties have been burglarized. She stated that the burglars took the bars off the windows to get inside the property.

“I wanted the mayor to know that as a concerned citizen and a taxpayer. The crime rate here is through the roof to be such a small town in Mississippi”, stated Malone.

Mayor Jimmie Smith addressed the crime saying that the police department has a long way to go with training officers on how to respond. In the last year, the police department has had five different police chiefs, Smith said it created chaos.

“We have a young police department, and we just need to do more training on how to be more professional. I think they want to help people; they just need to be trained properly”, explained Smith. “When you have chaos, and that’s what it is when you have five police chiefs, it’s chaos. I think that people see a break in the arm, and they do what they want to do.”

Smith says he believes if the community takes the time to nurture the youth of the city, the future could look very different.

“I think that one of the things that I would like to see and it’s about each and every one of us in the city to do what we can to nurture our people, the young people and it’s going to take time”, said Mayor Smith.

Mayor Smith also stated that he believes meetings like the one that took place last night are important to give the community the chance to express themselves and concerns to city officials.