Losing faith in our community’s elected officials is easy to do. It’s not uncommon to see some of them taking elaborate trips on the public dime or making decisions that are clearly not in the best interest of taxpayers.

But sometimes even the most jaded of us can be proven wrong.

My moment was on Monday night. It was Sept. 11 and aside from reflecting on the horrible terror attacked that had occurred 16 years earlier, it was mostly an uneventful day.

A simple email delivered the surprise. The subject line was to the point: “Everything appears secure.”

It was intriguing enough to quickly look at it on my phone.

It was just before 9:30 p.m. when I clicked open the message to find the attached photo.

The image was of a small card that read,”Greetings, your building was checked by Constable Adam Kirk in 9/11 at 8:52 p.m. o’clock.  At this time everything appeared to be secure.”

At the bottom of the card is a graphic of a law enforcement badge and Kirk’s contact information.

At once my belief that the majority of local elected folks were mostly just collecting a check melted away.

“We may still have a bunch of ill-fitted public servants,” I thought to myself. “But at least one clearly is trying to do his job of protecting and serving citizens and businesses”

Kirk said he started the patrols approximately a month ago, though he just got the cards in approximately two to three weeks ago.

“What prompted me to do this is all of the business burglaries we’ve been having,” Kirk explained. “When you go out there and you’re checking, the people who might break in might see me and think twice about taking the risk.

“I want businesses here to know that somebody out there is looking out for their interests.”

The response, he said, has been positive.

“It’s been great,” he said. “I’ve had emails and phone calls.

“The emails and phone calls, it kind of surprised me, and I didn’t expect that.”

Kirk said the idea for using the business cards was something he’d seen other law enforcement use, though he doesn’t think any in the area currently do so.

“By putting the time and date on it, it would also help if you did have an incident, particularly for smaller businesses who don’t have alarm systems.”

In the weeks since he’s begun the night patrols, Kirk said the work has mostly been uneventful.

“I found a couple of unlocked doors,” he said. “When I do that, I call that business owners and go ahead and lock that door if I can.”

A few late night workers were surprised by his visits.

“Actually, there’s been a couple of businesses that were working late and they weren’t counting on seeing me,” he said.

On one such visit, a worker thought Kirk may have been up to something he shouldn’t have been doing.

“I pulled up and the gate was open. I checked the gate and a woman came out and started hollering, ‘Can I help you?’” he said.

Once he identified himself, the startled woman was put to ease.

“If you see the card, it means everything is OK, not that something happened,” he said.

What is impressive about what Kirk is doing is that it’s above and beyond what is required by state law for his position.

Most of us typically consider the constable’s job as simply being the process arm of the court system, meaning the constables are tasked with serving warrants, collecting fines and the like.

But, by law, the position is loosely worded to be potentially much more than that.

The state code description includes this: “It shall be the duty of every constable to keep and preserve the peace within his county …”

Kirk is clearly working to do that.

“I try to go a step beyond (the minimum required),” he said. “I try to help the police and sheriff when I can, back them up on calls.”

Kirk is doing good work, even when it’s not required of him. We need more of that in our community. If you see someone who is doing good deeds and deserves some recognition, please let me know.
Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.