WLBT 3 - Jackson, MS: Neighborhood upset over security video

Neighborhood upset over security video

By Bert Case - bio | email

JACKSON, MS (WLBT) - Some residents of Woodland Hills, one of Jackson's most exclusive neighborhoods, are upset with Jackson Police. 

Surveillance cameras captured a man falling off of a bicycle at 4:15 A.M. Thursday at the entrance to Woodland Hills at Old Canton Road and Glenway Drive.  The man picked up dropped materials, put them in a bag, and started to ride away. 

About that time, the video shows a Jackson police car driving by. The man waves at the officer and goes on his way. The officer did not stop. 

Residents say cars were broken into overnight in the neighborhood, but police say they have no reports. 

"There is a philosophy that if you wave at a cop, he'll keep on going and think everything is just fine," said neighborhood resident Holly Lange. "Does the cop know him? Does the cop not care? Is the cop paying attention? I don't know the answers to any of these questions."

"There are plenty of reasons he could have stopped and asked the man some questions," said Clark Monroe, the president of the Woodland Hills Neighborhood Association.

Assistant Police Chief Lee Vance looked at the video and said he couldn't tell if the officer actually saw the man on the bicycle.

Vance said Commander Kenneth Goodrum of Precinct Four where Woodland Hills is located consistently has the lowest crime rate in the city. Vance says crime is down over 10% in the past year, and violent crime in that area is down over 23%, so he trusts Goodrum and his officers. 

Vance told WLBT that an officer cannot just stop a black man for riding a bicycle in a white neighborhood, because that is profiling.