Mississippi Attorney General Rural Law Enforcement Joint Task Force

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) solicits applications for initiatives which assist law enforcement in rural states and rural areas. The program helps rural states and rural areas to prevent and combat crime, especially drug-related crime, and provides for national support efforts, including training and technical assistance programs strategically targeted to address rural needs.

The Assistance to Rural Law Enforcement to Combat Crime and Drugs Program, administered by BJA, helps rural states and rural areas prevent and combat crime, especially drug-related crime, and provides for national support efforts, including training and technical assistance programs strategically targeted to address rural needs. In addition, priority consideration will be given to local law enforcement agencies in rural areas where the unit of local government is not eligible to receive a direct allocation from the Recovery Act Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program or received a direct allocation that was $50,000 or less. Applicants were invited to submit a proposal under any one of the following categories to: (1) combat rural crime; (2) improve rural law enforcement investigations; (3) enhance rural detention and jail operations; (4) facilitate rural justice information sharing; or (5) develop a national training and technical assistance program.

Under Category 2, the Mississippi Office of the Attorney General will use its award to support the Rural Law Enforcement Task Force. The overall mission of the project is to provide safer communities in rural Mississippi jurisdictions and improve citizen trust in rural Mississippi law enforcement agencies by forming the Mississippi Attorney General's Rural Law Enforcement Task Force to share investigative resources, provide individual department legal assistance, and financial reimbursement to agencies with experts on loan to agencies in need. The Mississippi Attorney General will use the funds to hire a full-time attorney and a full-time project officer. The funds will also be used to purchase video conferencing equipment, which will increase the impact of meetings, trainings, and workshops by reaching many agencies or community leaders who cannot attend in person. Video conferencing will also allow for replay of conference classes at programs such as the twice-yearly Prosecutors Training Conference.

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