Using FBI crime data, a public policy group has assessed that the homicide rate in Mississippi spiked 66 percent from 2017 to 2020, leading to the organization’s call for more police funding.
Empower Mississippi (EM) has produced a December report (pdf) examining violent crime statistics.
Em’s Senior Advisor Forest Thigpen said the report is intended to examine the facts in order to reach potential solutions.
“Crime affects everyone, directly or indirectly, and everyone should be concerned about it,” he said in a press release on the report. “Families, churches, communities, and of course government all have roles in addressing it.”
In its report, EM said that while violent crime was 27 percent lower than the national average in 2020, the state’s homicide rate accelerated, concentrating mostly in the state capital of Jackson, where the shootings are reported weekly….