Authorities report quiet holiday weekend
Published 5:00 am Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Local law enforcement officials report the past few daysresembled a typical weekend more than one associated with MemorialDay celebrations.
“It was a normal weekend for us. It was real quiet for aholiday,” said Brookhaven Police Chief Pap Henderson.
The chief responded to one party complaint, but the departmentdid not receive any other complaints about excessive noise thatrequired intervention.
“We never got a second call back on anything,” Hendersonsaid.
Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing agreed.
“We didn’t have any major incidents that I’m aware of,” he said.”It was a relatively quiet weekend for us compared to other holidayweekends.”
Rushing said deputies responded to a total of 95 calls frommidnight Thursday to midnight Monday.
Seven were accidents, including one with injuries Friday night.All were typical for a weekend, ranging from disturbances toall-terrain vehicles on public roads, he said.
“We had two or three checkpoints scattered throughout the countyto check for drunk drivers and to remind people to wear their seatbelts,” Rushing said.
Deputies established checkpoints on county roads Friday andSaturday night, he said. However, Rushing is still waiting fordeputies to file reports and could not provide information oncitations issued at the checkpoints.
Rusty Boyd, public relations officer for Troop M of theMississippi Highway Safety Patrol, said a stronger presence on thedistrict’s major traffic arteries likely resulted in higher numbersthan usual for a holiday.
“With the addition of the new troopers this year, we had more onthe road,” he said. “We’re happy with the way it turned out.”
Drunk driving arrests in Troop M’s District Nine were thehighest in the state at 44. The second-highest total was 34 inTroop E’s District Five in Northwest Mississippi, headquartered inBatesville.
Troop M, which covers Southwest Mississippi, also recorded thesecond-highest total of drug arrests with seven. Troop G’s District5, headquartered in Starkville, had nine drug arrests.
Troop G also recorded the only highway fatality of the weekend,which is down from four last year, Boyd said.
Sporadic checkpoints both day and night during the four-dayweekend contributed significantly to the number of arrests andsafety citations issued in the district, Boyd said.
In addition to drunk driving and drug arrests, Troop M arrestedtwo others on felonies while issuing 715 hazardous citations and376 non-hazardous citations. Reports show 39 seat belt and eightchild restraint law violations, he said.
The boost in the number of troopers statewide last year alsopaid off, Boyd said.
“We almost doubled the amount of traffic citations statewide,”he said.
A total of 10,876 citations were issued across the state.