NATCHEZ, Miss. – Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten expressed concerns today about staff shortages and other “internal” operations as he and his deputies collaborate more with the Natchez Police Department to combat crime.
Meeting with the Adams County Board of Supervisors, the sheriff said he wants county officials to meet with city leaders to discuss how to resolve problems he declined to publicly specify. He did acknowledge there’s an alarming shortage of officers in the NPD and Adams County Sheriff’s Office.
“If you knew the numbers, I know you’d be afraid,” Patten told supervisors without going into details.
This comes two months after Natchez-Adams County began a crime-fighting initiative dubbed “Operation Safe Neighborhoods.” It has Natchez police officers and Adams County sheriff’s deputies engaged in “saturation” patrols throughout the city and county to curb and investigate crimes.
The county and city boards have allocated funds to pay officers for the overtime work entailed in this joint operation. It’s mostly manned by Adams County sheriff’s deputies, said Chief Deputy Shane Daugherty.
With two people killed and others injured in two separate local shootouts during the holidays, Patten and his deputies have “had a busy couple of weeks – a lot going on,” said county board President Kevin Wilson.
Among other items brought up at today’s Adams County board meeting, supervisors discussed soil-testing measures needed for land donated to the county to build a jail. The property on U.S. 61 north – donated by the owners of Jordan Carriers – is being considered by supervisors as the site to build a county detention center to replace the old jail on State and Wall streets downtown. The 50-year-old deteriorating facility has been deemed unsustainable, unsafe and largely uninhabitable.
A meeting with jail consultants has been scheduled Jan. 29 for county supervisors and the public, said Debbie Germany, who’s helping to facilitate the various assessments and options for a new jail.
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