The Board of Mayor and Aldermen are kicking in more money to Central Mississippi Crime Stoppers in an effort to encourage more residents to report crimes to police.
The board Monday approved a resolution to contribute an extra $2,500 to the organization’s usual $2,500 reward for crime tips, raising the maximum a person could receive for reporting a crime through Crime Stoppers to $5,000.

The goal, Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said, is to help police solve three specific crimes, “Two unresolved murders and one case of a drive-by shooting. The other $2,500 will go to anyone providing information to the arrest of anybody that’s shooting into a dwelling or a moving vehicle. This is just one more tool.”

Flaggs said the extra reward was recommended by the recently appointed crime committee’s crime prevention subcommittee chaired by Police Chief Milton Moore.

“Hopefully it (the reward) will start some conversation about who’s doing all this shooting,” Flaggs said. “When you’re trying to help resolve crime, I don’t think you can put a dollar amount on it. If we have to go to $10,000, don’t look for me to say ‘no,’ because we’ve got to have a safer community.

Moore said city’s unsolved homicides involve the Oct. 29 shooting death of Antonio Maurice Henderson, 36, in the 1900 block of Baldwin Ferry Road, and the April 1 shooting death of Cortez Denzel Hardy, 21, in the 1300 block of South Street. He said police are seeking information about a drive-by shooting on Wabash Street in which several shots were fired into an occupied home.

“We appreciate the board contributing the extra $2,500,” Moore said. “We hope this will help get people to report crimes, and will provide us with information to solve these two homicides.”

Flaggs said the city is doing everything it can to help the police solve crimes, “But they can’t be everywhere. We are responding to calls.

“We want this community to be safe. We can list all the jobs, you can make downtown whatever you want it to be, you can make the community whatever you want it to be, but if it’s not safe nobody’s going to move in.”

North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield stressed that calls to Crime Stoppers are anonymous.

“So many people are afraid now to go in and talk with the chief about problems in their specific area or in the city,” he said. “You can be anonymous, nobody’s going to put your name out.”

“Don’t blame us if you see something and don’t say something,” Flaggs said.

Central Mississippi Crime Stoppers can be reached at 601-355-TIPS (8477) or 1-866-481-8477.