242 tickets issued, 14 felony charges in saturation patrol Friday

The law enforcement saturation patrol that blanketed Union County Friday netted nearly 30 arrests and officers wrote nearly 250 tickets during the eight-hour event.

Sheriff Jimmy Edwards said, after meeting with those involved, “There were 27 total arrests.”

Eight of the arrests were felony arrests involving 14 felony charges. “There were 16 DUIs and 242 tickets issued,” he said.

Additionally, some of those stopped had outstanding justice court or other warrants that officers were able to serve.

The Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol was involved in one high-speed chase that began near Myrtle and ended at Blue Springs as they pursued a suspect driving a high-performance Dodge Hellcat.

No one was injured in the patrols and roadblocks.

Edwards had talked with New Albany Police Chief Chris Robertson and representatives of the Highway Patrol about the need for such a saturation patrol since one had not been held for some time. He wanted to bring in Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics personnel as well. About 60 to 70 officers participated.

“It’s good to have something like this every once in a while,” Robertson said. “It helps keep problems in check and lets the community know we are doing our best to keep people safe.”

In addition to the evening patrol stops, Robertson said they made four arrests earlier Friday as a prelude to the saturation patrol.

The Snyder address the chief said has been a trouble area.

Two of the arrests came at what Robertson said has become a trouble spot lately.

Susan Downs, 37, of 119A Snyder St., was charged with possession of methamphetamine.

Joseph Penson, 43, of that same address, was charged with sale of methamphetamine and possession of methamphetamine and marijuana. He was out on felony bond for sale of methamphetamine at the time of arrest, which was revoked.

Antonio Conners, 32, address unknown, was charged with sale of methamphetamine and being wanted by the Mississippi Department of Corrections. He was out on felony burglary bond at the time of arrest and his bond was revoked also.

Ricco Knox, 31, address unknown, was charged with sale of methamphetamine and possession of methamphetamine. He was out on prior burglary bond at the time of arrest also, and that bond was revoked.

Robertson and Edwards both have talked about having a stronger voice with the legislature this coming year. They hope to see a turnaround in legislation that focuses on cutting costs for things like housing prisoners more than giving law enforcement the tools they need.

“Having a safe community doesn’t happen by accident,” Robertson said. “Some of the laws being worked on now are not conducive to keeping the community safe.”

“Legislators must give us the tools to keep that objective and in my opinion they are going in the wrong direction,” he said. “I think it’s a constant struggle to do the job to the best of our abilities when they keep changing the rules on us. Some folks are literally out of jail before the ink dries.”

“Our job is to catch bad guys and enforce the law,” he said. “It gets harder by the day.

But Robertson has some optimism.

“I think most of our local legislators are going to take time to listen to us,” he said.

Although the legislative session does not start until January, he said bills are already being preliminarily discussed.