Jackson Police reintroduce Blue Impact to reduce gun violence

The Jackson Police Department hosted a joint press conference where Police Chief Thom Corley reintroduced Blue Impact to the citizens of Jackson alongside Mayor Scott Conger on Wednesday.

“The safety of our citizens is our top priority,” Conger said. “We will use every resource at our disposal to protect our citizens.”

The Blue Impact Initiative was resurged last year under the leadership of former police chief, Julian Wiser. At that time, gang violence had slowly started trending upwards. Blue Impact had three goals during this resurgence and that included intelligence-driven policing, community policing and focus-oriented policing.

Blue Impact today consists of components of a multi-faceted operation designed to focus on particular criminal behavior. One of the biggest components discussed was combatting gun violence.

"Blue Impact has a diverse approach to the many topics related to gun crime," Corley said. "This includes felon possession of a firearm and even child safety. If you commit a violent crime in our city, you are going to jail."

Since April, Jackson police have recovered 26 unlawful firearms. A couple of weeks ago, they retrieved a 9mm and 40 grams of ammo from two juveniles. This year, JPD has investigated seven homicides this year.

Community partnerships for Blue Impact will include the Madison County Sheriff’s Department, ATF, Tennessee probation and patrol as well as the US Marshals.

Katrina Smith is an education reporter for The Jackson Sun. Send those story ideas to kmsmith@gannett,com

This article originally appeared on Jackson Sun: JPD, Blue Impact, gun violence, Jackson, TN, Police Chief, Thom Corley