Olive Branch, MS—
FAST FACTS
- Olive Branch Continues Fighting Cross-Border Crimes
- New Chief Reorganizes, Puts Emphasis on Community Relations
- Special Task Force Can Saturate High Crime Areas
(Olive Branch, MS 8/10/2009) Police in Olive Branch are under new leadership these days, and with that new leadership comes new ideas and strategies for fighting crime.
For years, Olive Branch has worked hard to control a rash of break-ins, home invasions and other crimes along the state line. Now a reorganization of the department could make that goal easier to reach.
Mundo Mendes lives in one of Olive Branch's newest and nicest neighborhoods, but he says crime on the outskirts of town here worries him. "Had a couple of break-ins in these two homes across the street. They had the doors kicked in some windows broken." he said.
Those same kind of incidents, plus home invasions and other crimes have always kept former Chief of Detectives Don Gammage busy.
Now, as Olive Branch's new Police Chief he's making changes in the department to knock out crime.
You can find what Gammage calls one of his most important changes, on facebook where The department puts crime statistics and other information up every day. "Hopefully I think it'll get the community more informed of what we're doing and what we're trying to do here at the police department." said Gammage.
But Gammage isn't stopping there. He's created a "street crimes task force" to deal with crime hotspots and saturate problem areas on any given day. "Their primary function will still be narcotics but they'll support the patrol and also the investigative unit." said the Chief.
He hopes that one-two punch will hit criminals hard and remind them not to cause trouble in Olive Branch. "We want to keep crime out of Olive Branch and protect our citizens and that was our focus to keep 'em informed and criminals know when they come down here that we don't just slap 'em on the wrist." he warned.
Instead he want's criminals to know they'll get slapped with a pair of handcuffs, and that's just what folks like Mendes want to hear. "We kind of get left out in the cold sometimes but I think with these folks those extra hands, it'll be really good for everybody." he said.
Chief Gammage says better community relations has already resulted in more calls to the department and more tips on crimes.
