Valerie Martin-Davis stood in the Willowood Community Center Monday evening, hand to her chest, pleading with law enforcement to hear her out.

It was just two nights earlier that five young men allegedly engaged in a shootout on her street which left one injured, shattered car windows and left bullets lodged in homes. 

“I don’t want to move to Madison. I don’t want to move to Ridgeland. I want to stay right here in Jackson,” Martin-Davis said to a round of passionate claps. “I’ll be doggone if they make me move. This is home for me. You’re not going to mess with my folks.”

Martin-Davis has lived in Will-O-Wood for 36 years. In recent years, she said she’s seen her neighborhood become overrun with crime and gang activity. She’s called the police multiple times and left complaints with an operator about young men walking the streets with guns. 

“We’ve been dealing with this for five years. We see the boys come outside shooting the guns in the air. They’re shooting at each other like they’ve got cap guns, like the guns aren’t real,” Martin-Davis said in an interview with Mississippi Today.

On Monday evening, dozens of concerned residents packed out the community center to hear from Chief Joseph Wade with the Jackson Police Department, Chief Bo Luckey of Capitol Police, and other elected officials, and offer their concerns about crime in their neighborhoods. 

Some voiced complaints about long wait times when calling 911. Assistant Chief of Police Vincent Grizell, who oversees the 911 system, said that JPD received over 8,000 calls last week.

“We’re hoping that things can be more efficient. We’re talking to Hinds County and AT&T about our 911 system,” Wade said. 

Officers offered up their personal phone numbers to residents to call if they needed assistance. Wade also laid out plans to increase police presence in the community.

“Not only are we looking at installing some blue light surveillance like we did in Presidential Hills. We’re looking at installing some license plate readers in your community, as well, to catch these bad actors coming in and out, and taking photos of them as they come in and out,” Wade said. “We’re also looking at installing some of our stealth covert cameras where they don’t even know that we’re there and recording things.”

Jackson Mayor John Horhn also spoke to the crowd, pointing to recent statistics that show the murder rates are declining across the city.

“All of our stats right now are trending downward in Jackson,” Horhn said. “We had 71 murders this time a year ago. We have 35 now. So we’re moving in the right direction, but not fast enough.”

Violent crime in Jackson is down 12.35% from 2024 to 2025, and property crime is down 17.28% in that same time frame, according to data provided by Tommie Brown, JPD’s public information officer.

Still, Horhn said that the court systems need to apply a bit more pressure in trying criminal cases. Some cases take years, he said, which bogs down the system.

“We’ve got to move those cases forward, and we’ve got to go ahead and expedite the building of this new jail, but I’m talking it might be 2029,” he said. 

Horhn also points to creating and investing in mentorship programs and workforce development programs as an alternative for people who are vulnerable to gang activity.

“We’re not going to police and jail our way out of this problem. We don’t have enough jails. We don’t have enough policemen to fight the problem everywhere it’s manifesting and showing its face. So we’ve got to come up with some opportunity to provide an alternative to the criminal element,” he said.

Outside after the community meeting, Martin-Davis said she’s hopeful that the police will work together with community members to protect their neighborhoods. She doesn’t want to leave Jackson, and she said she shouldn’t have to.

“I could have moved anywhere. I came back home. This is home for me. We’ve had a house over here for 36 years,” she said. “There is no way anyone is going to make me leave my neighborhood.”