Chief to arrested cops: 'I wish you well in the criminal justice system'

Two former Jackson police officers have been arrested on a charge of grand larceny for the theft of trailers from a downtown business.

Willis Thomas and Rodney Vaughn, both 25, have each been charged with two counts of grand larceny after surveillance video allegedly shows them stealing two trailers from AirLock on Foley Street last Wednesday. They are no longer employed by the Jackson Police Department.

Both Thomas and Vaughn were with JPD for two years and 11 months. They were in the same recruit class, JPD Chief Lee Vance said Monday.

Vance said that he has not personally confronted the two officers he says have "tarnished the badge" of JPD.

"I have nothing to say to these people other than I'm glad you're not here again, and I wish you well in the criminal justice system," Vance said. "It's my expectation and it's my hope that the criminal justice system will hold them accountable. This type of behavior is not a part of what we're trying to do here. It's not a part of what we are... we despise it."

Vance said in addition to the surveillance video, other police officers proved crucial in bringing Thomas and Vaughn to justice.

"The ironic thing is that we released that video to the media in hopes of identifying suspects," Vance said. "Well, it worked well again. Unfortunately those suspects were police officers, but that didn't deter us from doing what we needed to do."

On the video, one of the officers can be seen backing a white Nissan Titan up to a trailer and hooks it up. The other officer hooks the other trailer up to his green Nissan Frontier. Officials said both men wore masks and hid their license plates.

Officials said they are still investigating, and more arrests are possible. Vance said at this point there's no indication that any other officers were involved, but there may be other arrests.

The stolen trailers have not been recovered, but police do have ideas where they could be, Vance said.

Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com or (601) 961-7236. Follow @TRex21 on Twitter.