Hollingsworth retiring from law enforcement

Published 11:43 am Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Jack Hollingsworth is a career law-enforcement officer in a family of them, well-known to Vicksburg and Warren County residents who grew up with him or his father, uncles or son wearing the uniform of an officer or deputy.

With Hollingsworth’s retirement Dec. 31, the county will be without a Hollingsworth in the business for the first time since 1948.

“I’ve been around it all my life,” he said. “We just grew up around it and it’s more or less in the blood.”

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Hollingsworth’s father, Robert, was a Mississippi Highway Safety Patrolman. His older brother Bob is retired from the Jackson Police Department, and his son, Mike, retired months ago from the Warren County Sheriff’s Office. Grandson Dale is a police officer in Clinton, he said.

Jack Hollingsworth, 66, began his own law enforcement career with the Vicksburg Police Department in 1967. He put in 21 years there, retiring in 1988, but then went back to work, first for the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department in 1997 and two years later moving over to the Mississippi Department of Corrections, where in 2002, he was assigned to the Warren County office, to manage probation and parole cases.

“It’s been a big change being a probation and parole officer,” he said with a laugh. “Before, I always locked them up. Now I’m getting them out.”

Many of those offenders have called and come in especially to wish him well as he retires and to thank him for being tough on them, said Warren County deputy Jerry Davidson, who will step into the job Jan. 1.

“They have a lot of respect and appreciation for him,” said Davidson. “He’s got a soft heart when needed, and a firm hand when that’s needed.”

Davidson, 46, has been with the sheriff’s office nearly 10 years, assigned to the Warren County Courthouse. He’s also worked security details at football games, funerals, Miss Mississippi pageants and the annual Redwood Turkey Shoot, he said.

“I’ll miss seeing the people going in and out of the courthouse and being at different functions where the kids know me as a deputy,” he said. “I’m not going to want to see them under these conditions, because that will mean they got into some trouble, but I’ll run into them at Walmart or the mall and we’ll still have a good time talking.”

Hollingsworth said he’ll do some fishing, work on the “honey-do” list for his wife of 48 years, Linda, and give more time to his Rolling for Jesus Ministry. He’s made eight Christian CDs and loves singing in churches.

“I’m hoping the Lord opens some doors and I will be able to go and do revivals,” Hollingsworth said. “I might even get into writing songs now. I’ll have a lot more time.”