The Board of Mayor and Aldermen took a big step last Monday by increasing the reward for Crime Stoppers tips by $2,500.

That means people who call or email tips to Central Mississippi Crime Stoppers could receive up to $5,000 if their information leads to the arrest of someone who commits a crime in Vicksburg.

When Mayor George Flaggs Jr. announced the increase, he said one reason was to help solve two homicides that occurred in the city in December and April. He also gave another.

“Hopefully it (the reward) will start some conversation about who’s doing all this shooting,” he 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.

Using the incentive of a Crime Stoppers reward is a good way to get people to report crimes, but it shouldn’t be that way.

Watching out for our neighbors and reporting suspicious activity to police should be something people do because it’s the right thing. If we don’t want the police contacting us when they respond, that can be handled with one sentence, “I do not want to be contacted.”

North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield added another option, suggesting if someone is reluctant to go to the police to report problems in their neighborhood, they can go see him, South Ward Alderman Alex Monsour or Flaggs in their offices and they will call police.

“You can be anonymous, nobody’s going to put your name out.”

“We want this community to be safe,” Flaggs said. “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.”

And the only way that can be done is by people doing their civic responsibility and reporting information on crimes or reporting any suspicious activity in their neighborhoods instead of taking to Facebook or some other media and complaining. Responsibility for the safety of our community belongs to all of us, not just law enforcement, and it is something we should take seriously.

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