Press conference held over recent shooting incidents in north Jackson

JACKSON, Tenn. — In response to the recent shooting incidents in north Jackson, a press conference was held addressing park safety.

Jackson Mayor Scott Conger, Jackson Chief of Police Thom Corley, and Parks and Recreation Director Tony Black first spoke and were then available to answer questions.

Mayor Conger was the first to speak about what the city is focusing on.

“Today our focus is on ensuring the safety of our public spaces. Our department is doing everything they can to bring the perpetrators to justice. While they do that work, we have to make sure that our parks are safe, and people feel safe. Everyone deserves to feel safe in Jackson. The kids deserve to feel safe in our parks, whether that be on the playground or on a sports team,” Conger said.

Chief Corley then spoke on what will be done to increase safety in all city parks.

“Obviously we are going to increase patrol and having staff more visible in the parks for the foreseeable future. We have cameras in the parks, but we are going to increase the number of cameras that we have added to the parks,” Corley said. “We will be conducting risk and safety assessments along with the Parks and Recreation Department on every park in the city to look at where we can be better from a security and safety perspective. We are going to be adding additional technology above the cameras in the parks. We can use that from a law enforcement perspective.”

Following the press conference, local community members had the chance to speak to the mayor, the chief, and the director. Most of whom were voicing their concerns regarding the safety.

“Last week, I called the desk sergeant of the Jackson Police Department, stating that if something is not done about the things going on in this park, something drastic is going to happen. And it happened the other night,” said Johnnie Scott, a local citizen.

Just a few statements that were made by concerned citizens were: “We are sad that it took a shooting to bring us together to fix this problem,” “We have been calling for years about issues in this park,” “The actions in this park have made us want to move away,” and “We are holding you to your word that these issues will be fixed.”

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