Safecity Meets with Pearl Police Chief

For Immediate Release

November 2, 2007

Contact: Tricia Raymond

The Executive Director of the crime watchdog organization, SafeCity, met recently with Pearl Police Chief Bill Slade to discuss ways for the two organizations to work together.

SafeCity was formed in 2004 and has as its mission statement to “bring assistance and accountability to the criminal justice system in Mississippi”.

“We realize the importance of Metro Jackson working together to fight crime,” states Raymond, “and are moving in that direction. It benefits everyone when we are all on the same page to fight criminal activity.”

Chip Miskelly, of Miskelly Furniture, has served as a Board member for SafeCity since 2006. “I have the greatest admiration for our law enforcement officers and the job they do. SafeCity is an organization that works very hard to support efforts to make the job of law enforcement safer and easier as well as to find ways to fight crime,” states Miskelly.

In 2006, SafeCity released a report that revealed the number of vehicle thefts in Hinds County had reached nearly 11,000 with only 62 convictions. With that report, SafeCity led the effort to strengthen the law against vehicle theft. “We changed the law so that stealing a car is now a felon and can no longer be categorized as joyriding,” states Mark McCreery, President of SafeCity. “We will track the implementation of the new law and will release statistics as it develops. We fully expect that the number of convictions will go up and the number of vehicles stolen will eventually go down.”

You can find out more about SafeCity by going to www.thesafecity.com. SafeCity is funded through local donations.