U.S. Attorney Todd Gee comments on investigation into Lexington, Mississippi police force – The Vicksburg Post

Lexington, Mississippi is a small town of about 1,200 people located in Holmes County, one of the poorest counties in the state and the country. With a median household income of around $39,000, about half the national average, many residents are struggling to get by.

Despite this poverty, our investigation revealed that the Lexington Police Department funds its very existence by imposing and collecting fines for minor crimes allegedly committed by the city’s low-income residents and the few transients in the area. this small town located about 24 kilometers from the nearest highway.

The city and its police department raise these funds by first imposing fines on almost every possible occasion, sometimes for minor infractions. For example, one man was fined $224.25 for public insults and had to pay $140 before Lexington police released him.

The city then collects these fines through illegal means. Specifically, without making the required assessment of a person’s ability to pay. Lexington police arrest, jail and continue to illegally detain people until they find the money to pay the fines they owe.

Our investigation revealed that a woman who attended the police station to make a statement as part of a murder investigation was arrested over her old fines.

Another man was arrested for trespassing. He spent five days in jail until he could pay a $200 fine. It wasn’t enough. Lexington jailed him for five more days until he paid a $50 processing fee.

In fact, Lexington turned the prison into a debtor’s prison, as Charles Dickens described it in his novels written in the 19th century. Only, it will happen in Mississippi in 2024.

This project is bearing fruit for the city and its police, and a bitter harvest for its residents. The police department takes on a large percentage of the city’s expenses — nearly 40% in 2022 — but it’s still not enough to pay the roughly 10 officers. Police used this unconstitutional ploy to collect fines that funded nearly a quarter of the department’s budget. Yet people still owe Lexington more than $1.7 million in fines. That’s about $1,400 for every man, woman and child in the city.

And the Lexington Police Department’s unconstitutional policing isn’t limited to how it collects fines. Our investigation found that Lexington police used excessive force and conducted unlawful stops, searches and arrests.

The City has also arrested and fined people for using profanity, which the Supreme Court clearly ruled unconstitutional more than 50 years ago. In one case, Lexington police arrested a young man for profanity even after he reminded officers that he had free speech. Adding insult to injury, the arresting officer used the same profanities during the arrest.

We have even seen cases where residents have been detained for illegal “investigative detentions” without being charged with any crime. Detaining innocent people for “investigation” is common in authoritarian regimes, but it is not legal in the United States.

As part of one such unconstitutional “investigation,” two Lexington police officers – one of whom was in a managerial position – detained an African-American woman in jail for nearly two days without filing charges and attempted to coerce her to have sex in exchange for his freedom.

Worse, we found that unconstitutional abuse disproportionately affects African Americans, who make up about 75 percent of Lexington’s population. And this trend has only gotten worse in recent years. For example, our survey found that in 2019, Black people were 2.5 times more likely to be stopped by Lexington police than white people. But in 2022, Black people were 12 times more likely to be arrested. In 2023, Black people were 17.6 times more likely to be arrested than White people.

These results are disturbing. As I said when we launched this survey, all of us in Mississippi and across the country want to feel safe in our homes and in public. But we want that security to be achieved fairly and legally, not through illegal force or abuse of power.

This is no excuse if Lexington is a small city and has limited funds. The Constitution applies everywhere in America, no matter how small or poor it may be. Lexington’s police force must be legally funded, and its officers must follow the law and treat people fairly.

Let me add that while the department was conducting this investigation, we heard disturbing accounts that many of the illegal policing practices used in Lexington may also be occurring in other small towns in Mississippi. I urge all police chiefs, mayors, sheriffs and public officials involved in law enforcement in Mississippi – and indeed in this country – to read the department’s report. Gone are the days when the isolation and remoteness of rural areas could mask the injustice of unconstitutional policing. Make changes now if your agency is using the same illegal methods.

The City of Lexington has cooperated with the Department’s investigation, and we hope that the same cooperation will continue as we move to the next stage of negotiation on ways the City can bring its policing practices into compliance with the law. Good police work is done daily and fairly in many places across America and Mississippi. People in small Mississippi towns, like Lexington, deserve the same.

Todd Gee is the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi. He is the son of Vicksburg resident Anne Bullard Gee.