NATCHEZ — Following an array of car and house burglaries, Adams County Sheriff Chuck Mayfield informed Natchez residents Friday on ways they can protect themselves and their property.

Mayfield said common sense is key when preventing burglaries in one’s car or home.

“You do have to lock your cars — you do have to lock your house,” Mayfield said to the audience during the weekly Friday Forum at the Natchez Coffee Company.

An individual shouldn’t have to lock up their home or vehicle, but times are different, Mayfield said.

Natchez resident Frances Cothren said she was a victim of a house burglary almost a month ago between the hours of 8 a.m. and noon.

“They took my TV and a Kindle,” Cothren said. “It was during the day and I found out when I came home for lunch.”

Cothren said she thinks her home was connected to a long list of recent home burglaries, which took place in late February.

Mayfield said another way to prevent burglaries is to carefully dispose of new item containers such as large TV boxes.

“If you buy a brand new television, don’t go put your box outside on the curb,” Mayfield said. “If you do, tear it up and put it in a trash bag because people are driving around looking, believe me.”

Criminals look for the easy score, Mayfield said.

Mayfield also encouraged area residents to develop a neighborhood watch program, which is an organized group of citizens who work together to prevent crime within a community.

Mayfield testified the benefits of starting a neighborhood watch program when he spoke on Morgantown, which issued several calls to the Adams County Sheriff Office on a regular basis.

“We went out there and started the neighborhood watch and there is really nothing out there now,” Mayfield said. “Everything is quiet and the bad guys have all moved out. That has been a great success story. Morgantown really cleaned their neighborhood up. Now we get very few calls out there, maybe one every two or three weeks.”

Most of those calls consist of speeding, Mayfield said.

The ACSO has recreated the way it carries out patrols, resulting in a decrease of crime in the county, Mayfield said.

“The more visibility you have, the less crime you have,” Mayfield said.

Mayfield said he is aware that some criminals have access to police scanners, which prompts his department to be careful to not give the exact location when patrolling.

He said because of the good work of officers he has worked with since being sheriff, the ACSO inmate roster is down to 40 — compared to the 100 to 120 inmates the county jail housed when Mayfield started working with the county in 1983.

“It’s a good thing,” Mayfield said. “Not only do we not have high crime, but we are keeping less people in jail, which saves money.”

Cothren thought the forum was informative.

“I do plan to check on a neighborhood watch,” Cothren said. “After I got robbed, I did call a bunch of my neighbors to warn them about what happened.”