Jackson Police offer safety tips for holiday shopping
JACKSON, Tenn. — As residents head out to shop for holiday gifts, it’s important to stay vigilant.
The holiday season sees many crimes of opportunity, and one local police department is implementing a new program to keep you safe.
“If you’re going to go Black Friday shopping, if you’re going to go shopping, have another person with you, have one or two more people with you, so you can at least feel more secure, so you can have more eyes, you know, looking around and making sure your surroundings are safe, making sure your vehicle is safe,” said Sgt. Curtis Cozart with Jackson Police.
Sgt. Cozart says the holidays season brings an uptick in home invasions and auto burglaries. Due to this, JPD is implementing a new program, called the Holiday Detail, designed to keep residents safe.
“We come out starting December the second, and we’re going to have a little bit more patrol officers and investigators doing their thing, so we can try our best to try to protect people while they’re shopping,” Sgt. Cozart said.
The Holiday Detail will last until the end of the December.
Sgt. Cozart tells us one of the biggest mistakes they see this time of year is people heading out for holiday events, but leaving their homes unsecured.
“Most people have the Ring doorbell camera, things of that nature. If you have a camera system, keep a check on that,” he said.
Also, keep your home and vehicle doors and windows locked.
And when disposing of your gift packaging, it’s a good practice to place it in black bags before setting it out for garbage pick up.
“We really need our community to lock their vehicles, because at the end of the day, a lot of people really don’t understand that some people just come up and just pull the door handle just to see if it’s unlocked or not,” he said.
JPD wants every shopper to feel safe during the holidays. They encourage anyone who feels uneasy or notices something suspicious while shopping to give them a call at (731) 425-8400.
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