Chief: CPD Flex Unit showing results
By Randy Bell
Clinton Police Chief Ford Hayman
It’s a question Police Chief Ford Hayman says he’s asked his command staff—and himself: “What can we do to make Clinton safer?” The answer is the department’s new Flex Unit, which Hayman calls a force multiplier.
“This is just a mission-specific group of officers who can get out there and go target whatever the problem is,” the chief explains. “They don’t get bogged down with other calls. They can specifically address certain issues.”
Since the Flex Unit was formed in June, Hayman says the five officers have made at least 14 felony arrests and 123 misdemeanor arrests. They’ve issued more than 550 citations and have seized 24 firearms and more than $11,000 in cash.
While Clinton’s patrol officers work twelve-hour shifts, members of the Flex Unit are on the streets for ten hours, four days a week, providing overlapping coverage at certain times of day.
“That’s the beauty of it,” the chief says. “They can help the patrol units that are on duty, but they’re also looking for their own stuff and trying to deter crime.”
He says the Flex Unit’s mission varies from day to day.
“It kind of depends on what kind of criminal trends we’re seeing in Clinton.”
For example, if the city sees a rash of auto burglaries like we have in recent years, “that’s what this unit is for,” Hayman says. “Something like that, [where] we can say, ‘It’s happening over here at this time. Y’all go out there and stop it.’”
On November 18, the Flex Unit was involved in apprehending a convicted felon from Alabama driving a stolen car.
“They tried to make a traffic stop over on I-20,” the chief says. “It was a car stolen out of Oklahoma– Stillwater, I think. The guy fled into Jackson. He bailed [out of the car]. We were able to get there, set up a perimeter [and] get our drone team [on the scene]. We actually had some assistance from the Highway Patrol and the Jackson Police Department. We were able to catch the guy.”
According to Hayman, even when it’s not making arrests, the Flex Unit is helping to ward off crime by creating more police visibility on the streets.
“When you have an extra five [police] cars in the city at any one time in addition to your six or eight [patrol officers] plus your traffic unit, it looks like there are just swarms and swarms of police officers. And that’s a good thing.”
And he says it’s another way that the police department tries to show Clintonians that they have nothing to fear.
“I don’t want them to be a victim of crime,” the chief says. “But I don’t want them to worry about it, either. I want them to have a great quality of life and play, shop, live—do everything they want to do in Clinton, and just don’t worry about crime.”
Hayman admits that something like the Flex Unit wouldn’t be possible without the City’s help in hiring more officers.
“We’re at a good number. We’re at 58 [officers] of 62 [budgeted positions] today, and hope we can get a couple more here soon.”
